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

Drivers 'not prepared for winter'

MANY DRIVERS are poorly prepared for the perils of winter motoring, according to the Highways Agency. As many as 45% of motorists do not make vehicle checks before the onset of bad weather and 28% do not take emergency kits. The agency's research also revealed that 53% of drivers do not even carry a de-icer.

The scramble for scarce tires

North American automakers are struggling with a nagging shortage of tires, caused in part by tire plant closings and rising demand for low-volume specialty tires. Automakers are paying much higher prices -- double-digit percentage increases from a year ago -- as tire makers gain pricing power. "We have been bombarded from every side for additional tires, and we can't keep up," said David O'Donnell, Continental Tire's vice president of original equipment in the Americas.

One lap of the Web: $52 million Ferrari 250 GTO, Alfa Romeo Montreal for sale and more bizarro engines

-- Even as the hammer fell on Juan Manuel Fangio's $30 million Mercedes-Benz W196R, we knew that that car wasn't the most expensive one ever sold -- it was merely the most expensive car sold at auction. Other cars were reported to have traded for a bit more in private sales. But now we have word of a car that absolutely blows the sale price of Fangio's little Silver Arrow out of the water: a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO that sold to an undisclosed buyer for $52 million.