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

Bridgestone’s ‘We’ve been everywhere’ Road Trip prize giving

Bridgestone’s ‘I’ve been everywhere’ Road Trip Flogging tyres isn’t the easiest job in the world; we all need them – at intervals far too regular than we’d like – but buyers tend to fall in to two camps – those who know a brand and ask for it by name, and those that have put on their car whatever the man at Kwik Fit is pushing this week. So ‘Brand Awareness’ is the name of the game (a game that can backfire – just ask Pirelli what’s going on in F1) and the more potential buyers a tyre brand can lodge its name in the brain of, the better. Which is why Bridgestone are running their We’ve been everywhere interactive campaign which very cleverly plots the escape of one man from office drudgery and showcases his journey out in to the proper world, all to a soundtrack of Johnny Cash’s ‘I’ve been everywhere’.

Range Rover Evoque: ‘Spy’ shots in London

The Range Rover Evoque with different back end treatments I know, why on earth do we need ‘Spy’ shots of the Range Rover Evoque when we saw a completely undisguised Evoque – and eventually an equally undisguised Victoria Beckham – at Land Rover’s recent party at KP to celebrate 40 years of Range Rover goodness? Which was exactly our sentiment when we got a Tweet from Land Rover pointing us towards ‘Spy’ photos of the Evoque which purport to be snapped whilst the Evoque was out in London – perhaps on a secret photo shoot? Anyway, that’s what we thought when we saw the four photos at the bottom shoved on to YouTube.

No sign of global auto meltdown at Tokyo Auto Salon

With more than 600 cars on display and a record number of exhibitors, nothing at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon tuner show hinted at the global economic downturn. As always, there was a great mix of styles, from hard-core, 1,000-hp, supertuned machinery to weird customized scooter tricycles. Auto manufacturers tried hard to capture the minds--if not the wallets--of the younger-than-30 crowd with customized versions of production cars, while tuners were busy persuading power junkies to choose them for their next engine modification.