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

Demise of kei cars on the horizon?

The kei car has long been a staple of the Japanese automobile industry and its car culture. Too diminutive for Western markets, the tiny cars and trucks are a strong influencer of design in Japan. Now, as The New York Times reports, the Japanese government has hit kei cars with increases in sales tax, gasoline prices and has reduced the kei car tax break introduced to make the cars popular in the first place by 50 percent.

Brabus unveils 850-hp grocery getter

It wouldn't be the Essen Motor Show without German tuning house Brabus introducing its own versions of one or two of Mercedes-Benz cars, with borderline-unbelievable power figures. And this year the Bottrop-based outfit didn't disappoint, rolling out the Brabus 850 6.0 Biturbo based on the 2014 E63 AMG station wagon. For starters, Brabus has increased the V8 engine's displacement from 5,461cc to 5,912cc, installing custom-made forged pistons and a precision balanced billet crankshaft, and replacing the stock turbos with ones of their own design featuring larger compressor units.

Nissan Qashqai (2014) revealed

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 07 November 2013 15:55 This is the new Nissan Qashqai, which will be built in Sunderland, UK, and goes on sale in January 2014. It's priced slightly higher than the outgoing Qashqai: the range will cover a £17-28k price range.To justify the price increase, the new Qashqai wears a sharper, more stylish body, and boasts more generous on-board kit levels across the line-up. With two million Qashqais sold worldwide since 2006, it is, in Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's own words, ‘The most important Nissan of the decade’.