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

LA Auto Show Design Challenge entries unveiled

The 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge entries have been revealed a few days before the show is set to open. As in previous years, several of the major players in the automotive design world are participating and automakers and design studios such as BMW DesignworksUSA, Subaru, Mazda, and China's SAIC and Changfeng will be exhibiting concept art. The theme of this year's design challenge is called "Biomimicry & Mobility 2025: Nature's Answer to Human Challenges.” With nature coming to be seen as one of the best R&D labs for design, and with biological knowledge doubling every five years, design studios were challenged to design vehicles that use biomimicry to increase the efficiency of mobility itself.

Classic Lamborghini video surfaces

The Lamborghini of today is a far cry from the Lamborghini of old. Starting life as a tractor maker, Lamborghini cars came in to being when Ferruccio Lamborghini complained to Enzo Ferrari about the clutch on his new Ferarri. The dismissive response was that “the fault is with the driver, not the car”, and so was born Ferruccio Lamborghini’s resolve to build a car to take on the might of Marenello from his factory in Sant’Agata (incidentally, when Lamborghini took apart the transmission in question, he discovered is was the same unit he was currently building in to his tractors!).

Bristol Cars sold to China. Possibly.

Bristol Cars - is it a Chinese Takeaway Earlier this month we reported the sad demise of the quirky and eccentric supercar maker that is Bristol cars, forced in to administration through a shortage of equally eccentric millionaires to buy their creations from another time. The good news is that they still look like a viable entity if they’re properly marketed, so we didn’t expect it to be too long before a buyer popped up and grabbed the Bristol Cars name, its Kensington showrooms and the handful of staff left. So we weren’t surprised to get an email this morning from China telling us the press there are reporting that the Xinjiang No1 Tractor Company – a State-owned maker of tractors (you’d never have guessed) – had snapped up Bristol Cars from the administrators.