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

Who's Where: Walter de'Silva appointed Head of VW Group Design

Volkswagen has just announced that Walter de'Silva, 55, has been appointed Head of Volkswagen Group Design. Since March 2002, de'Silva has been Head of Design at the now discontinued Audi brand group. There, in addition to supervising the Audi brand design, he was also in charge of Seat and Lamborghini.

Honda Jazz / Honda Fit recall – faulty electric window switch

Honda is recalling the Jazz/Fit to replace faulty electric window switches It’s not exactly on the scale of the Toyota recall for a sticking throttle, but nevertheless the announcement by Honda that they are recalling almost 650,000 (MY 2002-2008) Honda Fits (that’s the Honda Jazz in the UK) around the world is another blow to a Japanese car maker just as the worst of the auto industry woes of the last year or two seem to be easing. The European Honda Jazz recall seems only to affect RHD cars, so it looks like it’s just the UK that needs a fix to the master window switch on the driver’s door on 171,00 models here. If the window gets left open for long periods – or if there are long periods of heavy rain – water can get in to the switch and cause it to malfunction and, at worst, catch fire.

SoCal Speed shop wins AMBR award as hod-rodding returns to its roots

In a competition that "took hot-rodding back to its SoCal roots," the SoCal Speed Shop--the entity founded by original hot-rod hero Alex Xydias and now helmed by Pete Chapouris--finally won the AMBR. That's AMBR, as in, America's Most Beautiful Roadster, the most sought-after title in all of hot-rodding and the crowning glory of the Grand National Roadster Show. There is that competition at the Detroit Autorama that hands out the Ridler Award, but that is open to all manner of kustom kars.