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

Cash for clunkers plan revives trade fight

Import brand automakers and dealers warned on Thursday that a vehicle scrappage proposal before the Senate would violate trade agreements and could weaken the economy. The Senate could vote on the plan on Thursday, which would offer $10,000 to any moderate- or low-income consumer who trades in a car or truck that is at least 10 years old and buys a new one that is more fuel-efficient and "assembled in the United States." The trade-ins would be scrapped rather than resold. The U.S.-made mandate "smacks of the protectionism that led to the Great Depression," said Barbara Nocera, the top Washington lobbyist for Mazda North American Operations.

Mini John Cooper Works WRC: the roll cage in detail

Mini claims it’s created the safest WRC car ever – with a little help from Prodrive.  And to prove the point, they’ve opened up the Mini Countryman WRC’s innards and spilled some of the secrets of its rollcage. The Countryman racer is stripped and fitted with a new type of rollcage designed by Prodrive. Its beams curve outwards and the Banbury engineers say it has been designed to withstand impacts much better than the straight crossbeams used in most WRC cars.

Whiplash claim legal costs rising

GOVERNMENT attempts to reduce legal costs from whiplash injury claims seem to be failing. The average legal costs for small, whiplash-like third party injury (TPI) claims now stand at £2,500 per claimant, according to a report by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. The institute said this was a 15% increase since 2010 "when the Ministry of Justice introduced new measures which sought, in part, to contain legal costs".