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

La Dolce Vita won't return to Monterey in 2010

La Dolce Vita, the second big Italian-car event of the Big Monterey Weekend, will not return for 2010. First, some background: La Dolce Vita came about when Concorso Italiano, the longtime favorite of Italian-car lovers at Monterey, moved from the Black Horse Golf Club to an airport north of Monterey two years ago. The airport location was panned by attendees for its cold, windswept concrete and general lack of character.

Giugiaro honored in Korean ceremony

Giorgetto Giugiaro has received honors from the South Korean Government for his contribution to the nation's fledgling automotive industry.  In a ceremony in Seoul, Giugiaro received the prestigious 'Order of Merit' from the President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak. The relationship between Italdesign Giugiaro and Korea stretches back to the 1970s, a period of significant growth for the Korean nation, stifled only by its lackluster automotive industry.  It fell to the Italian designer to invigorate an industry that survived on reassembling and rebranding foreign domestic models. Giugiaro's solution was the simple Hyundai Pony.

The Petersen Museum isn't going belly up

I hate writing columns like this, the kind where one media outlet calls out another's mistakes. There but for the grace of God go I and all that… But the shrieking and hysteria over the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles going to hell in a handbasket -- that's what the LA Times reported -- is over the top, and it's turned into a fiasco. Here's the background.