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

BMW i3 Coupe & 3 Series GT: Geneva Motor Show 2013

The new BMW offerings at Geneva are the debut of the BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo and the European debut of the BMW i3 Coupe Concept. There’s nothing at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show from BMW that will set the column inches flowing, but BMW does have a couple of debuts in Switzerland to tickle interest – the 3 Series GT and the i3 Coupe Concept. The BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo comes under the heading of ‘Why would you build that’ (although, to be fair, we thought the same about the 6 Series Gran Coupe until we reviewed it) when BMW already offers the 3 Series Touring and, if you want something bigger, the 5 Series.

One-off Ferrari 458 pays tribute to Niki Lauda

One-off Ferrari 458 pays tribute to Niki Lauda Younger readers might not see the connection between Ferrari and Niki Lauda; after all, Niki Lauda is Chairman of the Mercedes F1 team, not Ferrari. But back in the 1970s, Niki Lauda was the Prince of the Ferrari F1 team, notching up driver titles in 1975 and 1977 in a Ferrari (and suffering horrific burns at the Nurburgring in 1975). Although Lauda left Ferrari  in 1977 on less than good terms, the Ron Howard tribute film to the ’70s battle between Lauda and James Hunt – Rush – has obviously had an impact on one of Ferrari’s wealthier clients, who has commissioned Ferrari’s Tailor Made Programme to create a Ferrari 458 dedicated to Niki Lauda.

Porsche 959 prototype to cross the block at Barrett-Jackson

When Professor Helmuth Bott arrived at the fledgling Porsche sports-car company in 1952, he was in his late 20s. The young engineer's first assignment was setting up a gearbox test stand for the company's new all-syncromesh Type 519 transaxle. Thirty-one years later, he gave the go-ahead for the development of a car that was to be the ultimate bleeding edge of what Porsche knew about building a rear-engined sports car.