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

Mopar salutes Don Garlits and muscle-car past as it eyes global future

Mopar made its name in performance and parts, but Chrysler's aftermarket division is staking its future on practicality. The brand celebrated its 75th anniversary on Tuesday at the Mopar engineering lab in Center Line, Mich., just north of Detroit. While it rolled out four custom cars with various stages of show-and-go upgrades and drag-racing legend Don Garlits, Mopar officials were decidedly forward-looking.

2013 Kia Carens price & specification. Costs from £17,895.

That’s a subjective call, but the new Carens is a decent looking effort from Kia at a sensible price point with decent equipment levels and offers plenty of family lugging abilities in to the bargain. All Carens models in the UK come with 7 seats and yet is 20mm shorter than the old Carens, But thanks to an extra 50mm in the wheelbase Kia reckons it offers all the space if bigger rivals and, with a flexible configuration for the seating, means the new Carens can accommodate the needs of a mix of load and people carrying with alacrity. The new Carens comes in three trim levels – catchily named 1, 2 and 3 – with 7 seats, cornering lights  LED running lights, electric heated door mirrors, AirCon, electric windows, Cruise, Radio/CD with iPod connectivity and Bluetooth and a rear conversation mirror.

McLaren P1: Paris 2012

The McLaren P1 – spiritual successor to the iconic McLaren F1 – has been publicly revealed at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Still, we do have more details on the P1 concept that McLaren say will turn in to a production car in 2013 before it finds its way in to the garages of wealthy McLaren customers in 2014. The McLaren P1 is designed to be “…the best driver’s car in the world on road and track” according to McLaren, which is setting the bar a bit higher than high, and the concept P1 at Paris is – at least in terms of what we can see – 95 per cent of what the production model will be.