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

SEMA 2008 show report: Pontiac G8 and Solstice

By Ben Whitworth Motor Shows 07 November 2008 10:01 According to Pontiac, its G8 GXP Street, G8 ST and Solstice GXP concepts at the SEMA show ‘raise the performance bar even higher, taking style and sportiness to the highest levels’. Time to don your oxygen masks as we scale the dizzy heights of Pontiac’s performance peaks. While the standard GXP isn’t short of grunt with a 6.2-litre 415bhp V8 under the bonnet, the Street swings with a hefty 7.4-litre punch that’s good for 638bhp and 600lb ft of torque.

One Lap of the Web: Mini challenges Porsche; kit cars; and brand loyalty

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. Mini wished the Porsche 911 a happy 50th anniversary.

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.