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

U-Haul adds green rides to car-share program

U-Haul has made moving simpler for many Americans, and its car-sharing program is cutting rates and adding more environmentally friendly rides in an effort to win over consumers. Called U Car Share, the program is adding the Toyota Prius, the Ford Focus, the Toyota Yaris, the Mini Cooper and the Ford Escape hybrid to its fleet. The registration fee is being slashed from $50 to $25, and members of other car-sharing organizations can have the member fee waived.

Guess Jethro's lap time and win a £550 Suunto watch

CAR journo Jethro Bovingdon drove the Lotus Exige 260 Cup around the track at Lotus HQ in Hethel, Norfolk, for a story in the new August 2010 issue of CAR Magazine, out on 21 July. But how fast was he in the latest track-day tool of choice?If you can correctly guess Jethro's lap time, you could win this brilliant Suunto Elementum Ventus watch. It's worth £550 and is yours to keep if you come up with the nearest time to Jethro's fastest lap.The 260 Cup is a £45,950 slice of Lotus: a beefed-up, supercharged and super light at 890kg coupé version of the Elise, honed and fettled for track action.

Merc to revive straight six, plus 4cyl and smaller V8s

Mercedes has just signed off a new engine family which will see most full-sized Mercs in future run four-cylinders, downsized V8s and… straight sixes. A friendly Mercedes engineer recently met CAR to disclose the engine plans for future models, including the surprise disclosure that Merc plans to switch to straight sixes, like its rivals over in Munich.  It's fair to say I almost choked on my breakfast croissant when I found out the details of the next MB engine generation which has just been signed off for release in 2015. Mercedes' future four-cylinder engines Again, there will be a family of new low-cost fours, and the big-bore V8s will be replaced by a series of downsized turbocharged 4.0-litre units.