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

17,000 solar panels to power Toyota’s Derbyshire plant

Toyota’s manufacturing plant at Burnaston in Derbyshire, where the Auris and Avensis are built, will install the biggest solar panel system yet seen in a UK car plant.  British Gas, which will stump up the £10 million cost of installing the solar panels, and Toyota are working together to save 2000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. Once the solar panels are installed, they claim it will save enough energy to build approximately 7000 cars a year.

Volvo C30 Electric: A severe cold-weather bashing

Voilvo has been cold weather testing the electric C30 at temperatures as low as -20C We do have more than a degree of scepticism when it comes to electric cars. Actually, it’s not the electric cars that cause us to be sceptical, more so the claims – or a lack of transparency - by car makers, which gets right up our nose. There’s an implication that the electric car is a replacement for the ICE car.

Honda goes social with the Sounds of Civic songwriting contest

It seems all automakers are tapping the social-media networks these days. From the Ford Mustang Mayhem package to the Toyota Prius plural campaign, conventional wisdom is there's nothing a few thousand Facebook fans can't handle. The latest automaker to hop the train is Honda, which is sponsoring a creative songwriting competition called the Sounds of Civic to mark the debut of the 2012 Honda Civic.