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

MINI Baker Street and MINI Bayswater arrive

MINI Bayswater and MINI Baker Street Two new MINI Special Editions named after London districts arrive in the form of the MINI Baker Street and MINI Bayswater. MINI decided around this time last year that they would name all future limited editions after London districts, since which time we’ve had the MINI Hampton and MINI Pimlico followed by the MINI Soho and even the MINI London to get a bit of extra mileage out of BMW’s Olympics 2012 sponsorship. And now we get the MINI Baker Street and MINI Bayswater.

BMW wants to sell 1,000 of its fire-breathing hybrids in the U.S.

It's literally a grand strategy: BMW is aiming to sell 1,000 of its new hybrids based on the 7-series and the X6 in their first year in the United States. The two hybrids will be revealed in production trim at the Frankfurt auto show this month. They use eco-technology to boost fuel economy and performance.

Volkswagen XL1

This, remarkably, is the production version of the Volkswagen XL1, the most fuel-efficient production car in the world, a car we'll see in Geneva in a little over a week. Barely changed from the concept version shown at the Qatar motor show two years ago, the production XL1 is the first production result of VW's 1-liter project – to design a car that uses less than 1l/100km (282.5mpg imperial) – that started with the lozenge-shaped, tandem-seat 2003 1L and the later L1 of 2009. The XL1 actually beats that by sipping just 0.9 liters with CO2 emissions of 21g/km.