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

97% of UK Lexus sold in 2014 will be hybrids

Speaking during the European launch of the new Lexus GS300h – the new entry-level hybrid in the executive GS range – Lexus UK director, Richard Balshaw, revealed that 97% of all Lexus sold in the UK next year are likely to be hybrids. The GS300h’s deputy chief engineer, Yukihiro Kito, als confirmed to MSN Cars that the return of diesel-powered Lexus vehicles is unlikely to happen any time soon – if at all. On Bing: see pictures of Lexus hybrids Find out how much a used Lexus costs on Auto Trader According to Kito-san, diesel just does not make sense for Lexus given the markets the company is chiefly competitive in, which is to say the USA and Asia.

Bentley Continental Supersports clocks 204 mph on road to Geneva motor show

Bling may not be the obvious place to be for a luxury sports car maker today, but here's Bentley showing what the ultimate development of the Continental GT will be. The Continental Supersports will be shown next week at the Geneva motor show as a production model. Its 630-hp turbocharged W12 will make it the fastest and most-powerful Bentley ever.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.