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

The Mini is 50 years old today

  Today - 08/05/2009 - is the 50th anniversary of the first Mini rolling off the production line. To celebrate, and for a bit of free publicity (see, we’re playing the game) BMW has shipped the first Mini to roll of the production line back to Cowley to celebrate (picture at the bottom). 621 AOK, a Mini Minor, in Old English White, looks as fresh as the day it rolled off the production line half a century ago (although I wouldn’t mind betting it doesn’t have it’s original sills – they always rusted through – or copes with its original distributor and leads – one splash of rain and the car ground to a halt!).

Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid Monterey +video

The Porsche 918 Spyder in Monterey Unless you’ve been locked in a cupboard for the last week, you can’t have failed to notice that this weekend the car world – or at least the upper echelons of the car world – has migrated to Monterey in California for a weekend of basking in the beauty that is the automobile, which culminated in the Pebble Beach Concourse d’elegance We’ve had a couple of premiers from Jaguar and a crash by Sir Stirling Moss; the US has acquainted itself with the Bugatti Veyron SuperSports and the Morgan Eva GT got its world premier. And Porsche took the 918 Spyder Hybrid to Monterey to let the world see it – and to pitch its wares to some of the wealthiest collectors on the planet. Which gives us the opportunity to bring you a VT of the Porsche 918 Spyder on the move.

U.S. seeks 5 percent annual fuel-economy gains through 2016

The Obama administration today proposed gasoline mileage and greenhouse-gas pollution standards for new vehicles for model years 2012 to 2015, filling in the blanks for manufacturers en route to a 35.5 mpg national target in 2016. The Transportation Department and EPA proposal calls for fuel economy to increase by about 5 percent each year, starting from an average of 27.3 mpg for the 2011 model year, the agencies said in a statement. The average car buyer would save more than $3,000 in fuel costs over the life of a vehicle, the statement said.