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

Rhys Millen loses brakes, takes second place at Pikes Peak

Rhys Millen, nephew of parts guru Steve Millen, didn't break Nobuhiro Tajima's world record at the 89th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb--Tajima did that himself. But Rhys Millen did clock a fast second-place run up the 12.42-mile course with a time of 10 minutes, 9.242 seconds in a prepped Hyundai Genesis PM580. That time was made even more impressive by the fact that Millen lost brake power in the last few miles before reaching the peak.

Local Motors 'Design Our Car' competition opens

Local Motors has opened its first-ever ‘Design Our Car' competition, which encourages collaboration within the manufacturing community. The open-source automaker is providing two of its Rally Fighter cars, one of which will be built at the company's micro-factory in Arizona while the other will be built live in the Emerging Technology Center at September's International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. Ideas from the design and engineering community are being sought to help design and select a skin for the Rally Fighter that will be built by the Local Motors team this spring.

Mercedes' production Bluetec diesel SUVs

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 13 March 2008 17:14 Europe loves diesel, America doesn’t, so welcome to the US-only Mercedes Bluetec SUVs. The R, ML and GL 320 Bluetec diesels will be launched in America in autumn 2008, but won’t be coming to Europe yet. The three SUVs, which Mercedes claims come with the world’s latest and cleanest diesel engine, may not even make it to the UK.  All three come with a 3.0-litre diesel engine that has revised piston crowns, a lower compression ratio, and a new turbocharger and ECU.