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

Renault Alpine A110-50 to be developed with Caterham

It seems the impressive Renault Alpine A110-50 is heading for production with Caterham, not Lotus, as development partner. Which is part of the reason Renault want a partner on-board to help with development and production of the Renault Alpine A110-50 – a new Alpine based on a Megane platform with a DeZir body – and turn it, hopefully, from a track concept to the first Alpine for the road in twenty years. It had been mooted that Renault were eyeing up Lotus to partner on the Alpine A110-50, but according to a report from Autocar they are instead working with Caterham to bring the A110-50 to life.

Hongik University wins 2011 Ferrari World Design Contest

Seoul's Hongik University scooped first place honors in the 2011 Ferrari World Design Contest. 50 highly prestigious universities developed designs for Ferrari's cars of the future, and students from the Korean school beat the second-placed Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) of Turin, Italy, in the final while London's Royal College of Arts (RCA) finished in third place. The ‘Eternità', developed by Kim Cheong Ju, Ahn Dre and Lee Sahngseok, was the winning design for Hongik University, while Azerbaijan's Samir Sadikhov, studying at IED, earned him second place with the ‘Xezri'.

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 for regular unleaded.