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

Washington auto show: Ford develops ‘intelligent cars'

There are plenty of smartphones, and now Ford is pitching the idea of “intelligent cars” that can communicate with each other to avoid accidents. Ford is investing heavily into the technology and will launch a fleet of prototypes this spring, the company said on Thursday at the Washington auto show. The idea is to use wireless signals on a secured channel to allow cars to communicate with each other.

Seat Leon Cupra R (2009) first official pictures

By Gareth Evans First Official Pictures 20 August 2009 10:59 Seat has unveiled its most powerful production car ever, the new Leon Cupra R, with an S3- and Scirocco R-matching 261bhp.   Performance figures for the front-wheel drive hot hatch look good: 62mph is dispatched in 6.1 seconds, the top speed is 155mph, and yet the Cupra R returns 34.9mpg. Thank the high-tech 2.0 turbo engine from the Volkswagen group, which in this incarnation makes 261hp. Helping get all that power through the front wheels is XDS, the same system you'll find on the Golf GTI that effectively mimics a limited slip differential through the use of electronic wizardry.

MIT researchers rethink electric-car batteries

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say a new battery design for electric vehicles could be a lightweight and inexpensive alternative. The goal for the team's three-year project, launched in September 2010, is to have a functioning prototype ready to be engineered as a replacement for existing electric-car batteries. At this point in the project, the prototype uses a “semi-solid flow” to separate the two functions of a battery--storing energy and discharging it when needed--into separate physical structures.