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

Kia GT at Frankfurt: It WILL go in to production

Kia GT at Frankfurt - will be going in to production We’ve been hugely impressed with the way Kia – and sister company Hyundai - has transformed in to a serious player in the car market. And now, having matched the Japanese in the mainstream market Kia, in particular, is looking to take things up a rung or three with the Kia GT. We praised the styling of the Kia GT when we saw the first photo, but we believed it was likely just a design exercise; a sort of ‘Look what we could do if there was a market for it’ kind of statement.

McLaren F1 sells for $8.47 million at Gooding & Co’s Pebble Beach Auction

McLaren F1 chassis #66 (pictured) has sold for $8.47 million There’s been an inexorable rise in the price of classic cars in recent years as rich men realise that certain classic cars not only have huge appeal, but appear to be going only one way in price. Add to that – certainly in the UK – that any profits made on the sale of a classic car you’ve bought for your own enjoyment are tax free, and it’s no shock that values keep rising, and the rarer the car the more they rise. So with only 64 road cars made, the McLaren F1 can be considered a sound investment, with values rising since it first sold in the 1990s for around £640,000 to a new world record auction price set last night of £8.47 million (around £5.42m).

Video: Yasushi Nakamuta on Mazda 3's 'unique' design process

It may be leaden with PR-talk but this short presentation by Yasushi Nakamuta, Mazda's director of advanced design studio at the press unveiling of the new Mazda 3 in Melbourne is still worth a couple of minutes of your time. But while the 3 is undeniably attractive we can't help but feel that the 'unique' design process Nakamuta describes (which appears wholly conventional to us) has resulted in little more than a thoroughly normal product. Take a look for yourself at the video to your left.