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

BMW/Exa-sponsored project at ACCD

Art Center's BMW/Exa 7th term sponsored project, which we first reported on back in mid-February, recently had its final presentation at the conclusion of the Spring 2008 term. You'll recall the project tasked the students with redesigning a future X5 Sports Activity Vehicle with the express mandate improving its aerodynamic efficiency by at least 30 percent. To achieve this lofty goal, the co-sponsor on the project, Exa Corporation was going to provide both their engineering software PowerFLOW and their technical know-how to virtually test the students' Alias StudioTools design models and provide them with real world aerodynamic feedback.

Who's Where: Martin Smith joins Ford Europe design team

Martin Smith has been appointed as Executive Director of Design at Ford Europe. Smith, a native of Sheffield, England, brings a wealth of design experience to Ford, having held positions at Porsche, Audi, and most recently as Director of Design for Opel/Vauxhall. In his new position, he will report to product development chief, Derrick Kuzak and to Ford's global group vice president for Design, J Mays.

2011 Honda Civic at Detroit

The 2011 Honda Civic - debut at then 2011 Detroit Motor Show Honda are previewing the Honda Civic Concept at next month’s Detroit Motor Show and have releaed a sketch to let us know what to expect. But this isn’t really a concept, it’s the 2011 Honda Civic and it will be on sale in the US by the Spring. Although it’s never particularly sensible to judge a car from a sketch – car companies do like to employ a little artistic license when rendering product yet to be – it seems clear that the 2011 Civic is going to get styling evolved from the Honda CR-Z with a bit of current Civic Type-R aggression thrown in as standard.