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

VW Taigun Compact SUV heading for production

It was a good-looking and appealing effort from VW to tap in to the very compact SUV market, with a real family look (a Tiguan on a boil wash), peppy little 3-cylinder 1.0 litre engine delivering 108bhp and a 0-62mph of 9.2 seconds (with 60mpg economy) and enough room to carry stuff and people thanks to an extra 50mm in the wheelbase compared to the Up! Now it looks like the Taigun is heading for production after VW’s Chief designer, Klaus Bishoff, told Autoexpress that he deeply believed the Taigun would be heading for VW showrooms very soon, and could be sold in the UK and Europe as well as in emerging markets. So you can add the Taigun to the list of VW’s SUV offerings, and with new versions of the Tiguan and Touareg (perhaps based on the CrossBlue Concept) and a Polo based SUV on the way too, it looks like VW are covering all the bases.

Infiniti Etherea to become B-Class based Infiniti DX

Infiniti Etherea will become the B-Class based Infiniti DX in 2014 To be entirely fair, the news that Infiniti is going to be build a compact crossover on the new Mercedes B-Class MFA architecture – and that it is the Etherea Concept forming the basis and likely to be called the Infiniti DX – isn’t a huge surprise. We knew last year when Nissan and Mercedes announced a partnership deal that it would impact on Infiniti as well as Nissan. And the first fruits of that have been confirmed by Carl Ghosn, with the news Infiniti will launch a compact crossover in 2014 using the Mercedes MFA platform which underpins the new B-Class.

UK gamer turned racer signed by Red Bull

When Nissan and PlayStation got together to develop the GT Academy, and started offering Gran Tursimo gamers the chance to become real-life racers, surely no-one expected the programme to be so incredibly successful. GT Academy graduates have raced all over the world, competing in all kinds of cars and succeeding in many famous events – including at Le Mans. Now 2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough could well be on his way to Formula One.