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

CES: It's a digital experience

The night before the Consumer Electronics Show opens its portals to the world’s technogeeks, there is a sort of preshow called the Digital Experience! (They added that exclamation mark to the name, not us.) Still, the relatively small, ancillary consumer-technology show does set the stage for the massive CES juggernaut the next day. This year, as always, we wandered the aisles of Digital Experience looking for car-related tech.

West Hollywood hires a robo-valet

West Hollywood, Calif.--where the valet guy can be just as much of a power broker as some big-shot producer--is going high-tech with its new parking garage. The Southern California city has enlisted Israeli company Unitronics to build a 200-car garage on Santa Monica Boulevard that will automatically park and retrieve cars. Think RoboValet.

New MINI 5-door Hatch starts rolling off the production line in Oxford

New MINI 5-door Hatch starts rolling off the production line in Oxford MINi are wasting no time in getting the new 5-door MINI Hatch in to production following its reveal at the start of June, with the firs 5-door MINIs already rolling off the production line at MINI’s Oxford Plant. The five-door MINI is the second MINI model to be built off BMW’s new UKL 1 platform – the new MIN I being the first – with the platform stretched to give the five-door an extra 72mm in it wheelbase, 15mm extra headroom and enough length to add a pair of (small) back doors). And unlike the three-door Hatch, the new five-door Hatch will be available with a full suite of models from the off, with the SD Cooper included in the range from launch as well as the  Cooper, Cooper D and Cooper S.