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

Cadillac CTS-V ‘sets saloon Nurburgring record’

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 12 May 2008 10:31 Cadillac’s new CTS-V has set a new production saloon lap record at the Nurburgring, the company claims. It reports the 2009 CTS-V lapped the 13-and-a-bit mile circuit in an impressive 7min 59.32sec.‘This blistering time appears to be the fastest ever publicly documented for a production sedan,’ says a breathless press release. And according to the records we’ve researched, they appear to be correct, although a Subaru Impreza STi Spec-C also lapped in 7min 59sec.It leaves us wondering who else is going to launch an assault on the Nordschleife’s 73 corners.

BMW M550d xDrive to get three stage turbo

BMW M550d xDrive gets three stage turbo Earlier this week we revealed that the long-expected BMW M550d xDrive was ready to rock and we could expect it to debut at the Geneva Motor Show in Spring 2012. The M550d xDrive is the so-called ‘Triple-Turbo’ diesel engine we’ve been expecting from BMW for the last couple of years. With 380bhp and a mountain of torque – 520lb/ft or more – we’d expected BMW to fit the engine to the X5 and X6 to create a diesel version of the M cars.

E85 makes inroads on cost and availability

Three years ago, we embarked on a Midwest road trip in search of what was then the Holy Grail of fuel: E85. Our findings weren't too positive--there were far more E85-compatible vehicles on the road in 2006 (5 million) than there were E85 pumps to fuel them (about 700 out of some 200,000 fuel stations nationwide). In addition, those burning the mix of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol were paying a pretty penny for their earth-friendly ways, losing about 15 percent in fuel economy while often paying the same price as regular unleaded.