Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid (2011) first official pictures

Porsche has released details of its updated 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the 2010 original nearly won last year's Nurburgring 24hr race before (ironically) it retired with petrol engine failure.  The 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the lowdown Before this report disappears in a chorus of ‘it looks the same as last year’s one’, let's outline where Porsche’s engineers have been busy. At the unfashionable end of the car remains a 4.0-litre flat-six engine producing approximately 470bhp. Up front are twin electric motors, now producing 75kW of power each (up from 60kW) and combined these give the GT3 R Hybrid a 197bhp electric boost, which can be programmed to activate automatically via the throttle pedal, or manually selected during overtaking. F1-derived hybrid tech for the 911 GT3 R Hybrid Power for the two electric motors doesn't come from batteries, but flywheel accumulator technology from Williams Hybrid Power, an offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team. The flywheel, encased in a carbonfibre safety cell in the space where the passenger seat would be, spins at up to 40,000rpm and acts as a mechanical energy store for the electric motors. Regenerative braking feeds energy back into the flywheel system – no surprises there, as the technology is derived from Williams' exeprience with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) in F1.

2009 Nissan GT-R upgrades confirmed

We’ve been seeing quite a lot of guess work and speculation lately about 2009 changes to the supercar killer that is the Nissan GT-R. And all this before the UK even gets its first car. The most speculated upon change, and one that has been confirmed, is the deletion of launch control from the spec for all cars ordered from today.

Kia Carens (2012) first offical pictures

Another Paris motor show attendee has been confirmed today: the lower, sleeker, altogether less mumsy 2012 Kia Carens. Ex-Audi design guru Peter Schreyer looks to have treated the Carens to the now-trademark Kia grille and more European-style design, but all we've got to go on so far are these rather 'negative' teaser images from Kia. Kia's 2012 Carens: the details Judging by these Photoshopped teaser photos, the new Kia Carens is a world apart from the more squared-off, minivan MPVs that have gone before.