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

BMW i3 EV revealed. It’s clever, but it’s not exactly pretty

The BMW i3 electric city car (pictured) has been officially revealed The BMW i3 – the first of BMW’s production ‘i’ electric cars – has finally been revealed at events in London, New York and Beijing as BMW plots its course to bring a premium electric city car to the world. Looking much like the original Mega City Concept, the i3 debuts a number of innovations from BMW – which are very clever – but it also debuts perhaps the worst looking BMW we’ve ever seen, with its incongruous lines, bulging bonnet, odd shapes on the flanks and slab-backed rear view. But what underpins the i3 is clever indeed, with a lightweight inner body made from carbon fibre and carbon fibre reinforced body panels providing the skin, all conspiring to make the i3 light – 1195kg, despite 25 per cent or so of that being batteries – and very rigid.

Chevrolet sprinkles in some ZR1 for the Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition

With the ZR1 grabbing all the headlines of late, it's easy to forget about the other pumped-up performance thoroughbred in the Corvette stable--the Z06. However, that's about to change, because Chevrolet is taking some of the ZR1 goodies and transplanting them over onto the Z06 for the 2011 model year, such as the Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes and magnetic select ride control system. The features will be standard on a new 2011 Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition, which Chevy is using to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Corvette's first 24 Hours of LeMans race.

Audi Urban Future Summit: Interactivity in the future city

The Audi Urban Summit is an international convention bringing together experts on urban mobility and development to discuss one central question: Which energies and forces will change the city of the future in 2020 – and what relationships will exist between these forces? Held in Frankfurt, just prior to the city's auto show, the summit aimed to hold an open discussion that was ‘free from preconceptions about how cities and mobility can be shaped in a suitable and sustainable way in the future'. Workshops focused on three key themes: Energies of data, energies of social relations and energies of resources.