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

Focus RS – get 345 Mountune horses from your Ford dealer

The Focus RS Mountune Power Kit gives you the power of an RS500 If you’re busy spitting feathers because you’re one of the unlucky thousands who tried to throw £35k at Ford for one of the limited edition Focus RS500s last week, worry not. You can save yourself a not inconsiderable chunk of change by taking your current Focus RS off to your local RS dealer and getting a Mountune Performance Upgrade Package and match the RS500 performance for rather less than the extra £10k the RS500 costs. Ford have a long history of working with Mountune to get more out of their production cars – Mountune even supplied the engines for the original Sierra RS500 BTCC entries –  and there are already Mountune kits available to get more from your Ford – without screwing with the warranty – for the Focus ST, the old Fiesta ST and even the latest Fiesta.

UPDATED: Honda hints at new European advanced design studio

On the eve of the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda Design's Creative Director, Toshinobu Minami, announced that the company is looking to once again open a design facility in Europe. The announcement came during a presentation at the R&D Center in Waco, just outside the Japanese capital and, while not confirmed, Minami-san strongly hinted that the UK would be a likely candidate to play host to Honda's revitalized European design operations. He cited the country's existing manufacturing and administration facilities, as well as a wealth of new talent from the Royal College of Art in particular.

British EV prototype competes for $10m prize

A Silverstone-based company has emerged as the only British (and European) contender for the $10m Automotive X-Prize, a competition to find the most environmentally friendly car on the planet. Delta Motorsport’s E-4 Coupe concept has been accepted into the next stage of the X-Prize competition and the company now has to prepare a fully functioning prototype. Backed by an American insurance company, the X-Prize was set up to 'inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change'.