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

New Honda Civic Black Edition launches

New Honda Civic Black Edition launches The Honda Civic in normal guise – as opposed to the Type R – might not be the most inspiring car on the market, but it offers a convincing package nonetheless of great quality and decent looks and, in the latest Civic, better ride and better handling. As a Ford Focus and VW Golf competitor, the Civic perhaps suffers from a slightly boring image, which would explain why Honda has launched the Civic Black Edition with a meaner look to entice buyers who want a Civic that looks a bit less an older generation car. There are no power upgrades, suspension tweaks or promise of more dynamism from the Civic Black Edition, but it does get exterior gloss black elements and black side skirts and rear bumper, together with gloss black roof spoiler, integrated covers for the door mirrors and a gloss black fuel filler lid.

Porsche finally becomes a VW company

Volkswagen has announced it is to finalise its takeover of Porsche by buying the remaining 50.1 per cent of Porsche stock for €4.46 billion. The takeover of Porsche by VW has been a long and rocky road, but then family fallouts are always messy. It all started with Porsche attempting to consume VW, but some clever manoeuvring by Ferdinand Piech thwarted the efforts of his cousin, Wolfgang Porsche, to swallow up his business and the financial crisis saw Porsche rack up €10 billion in debt in the process.

Aston Martin Rapide coming home

Aston Martin Rapide - homeward bound It took Aston Martin what seemed like forever to get their four-door supercar – the Aston Martin Rapide – in to production, and even then they didn’t build it themselves. When they were busy planning production of the Rapide the world’s economy was buoyant, credit was a piece of cake and Aston Martins were flying out of the showroom. But the new economic reality bit in 2008 and sales fell at Aston Martin, but by then the plan to get the Rapide built at Magna Steyr in Austria was unstoppable so, despite Aston Martin workers twiddling their thumbs as Magna Steyr built Rapides, there as nothing to be done.