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

Call for ban on in-car hands-free phones

Road safety charity Brake is calling for a blanket ban on in-car hands-free phone systems. Using a hand-held phone while driving is already illegal in the UK, so a proposal to prohibit even hands-free kits would completely eradicate calling from behind the wheel. On Bing: see pictures of people using mobile phones while driving 1 in 3 use mobile phone behind the wheel A decade on from when the mobile phone ban was introduced, Brake is asking the government to assess its policy on all forms of telephone communication while driving.

Opel Antara

Opel unveiled their new SUV at the opening of the new design center in Germany last week. Taking cues from the Antara GTC concept shown in Frankfurt last year, the production version shares its platform with the Chevrolet Captiva. More premium-feeling than the Captiva, the Antara combines the concept's "stylish-body-on-rugged-base" theme with shorter overhangs than the Chevrolet, though the roofline rises to accommodate the two additional doors.

BMW takes the Active Tourer Outdoor outdoors this weekend

This weekend BMW will be taking its BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor to the annual OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany. We first saw the concept last September, noting that it was a departure for BMW in more ways than one -- with the German automaker stretching itself into segments in which it previously had no foothold. The BMW Active Tourer is meant to preview a whole new generation of small cars from BMW, but one of the biggest changes underneath is a transverse layout of the engine -- a setup that BMW has traditionally shunned in favor of a longitudinal layout.