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

Concept Car of the Week: Ferrari Pinin (1980)

Over the years, Ferrari has slowly built a reputation for the fact that any car that wears the prancing horse badge on its bonnet ought to be a design masterpiece. Everyone has their own personal favorite: 250 GTO, 250 GT California Spider, 330 P4, Modulo, Daytona, you name it...  Yet few would remember – or even know about – the odd ones, the ugly Ferraris hidden away, rarely allowed to see the light of day; a few rare cars that got brushed under the carpet as quickly as they appeared include the 365 GTC/4, FZ93 Zagato, the 408 Integrale and the Pinin. Most of them are the work of independent studios, long-distanced from Enzo's (dis)approval.

2012 Mercedes A-Class revealed in patent filings

The slightly drab 2012 Mercedes A-Class Car makers must hate filing for patents on new cars, because it means trusting images of their new and secret car to a third party. Basic images, admittedly, but the real-deal nonetheless. So Mercedes must be spitting feathers today as the images they sent with their patent applications on the 2012 A-Class leak out of every open window, door and PC and straight on to the interweb.

CES: It's a digital experience

The night before the Consumer Electronics Show opens its portals to the world’s technogeeks, there is a sort of preshow called the Digital Experience! (They added that exclamation mark to the name, not us.) Still, the relatively small, ancillary consumer-technology show does set the stage for the massive CES juggernaut the next day. This year, as always, we wandered the aisles of Digital Experience looking for car-related tech.