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

Ford's automotive assembly line celebrates 100th anniversary

A mere century ago, on Oct. 7, 1913, Henry Ford rigged up a rope tow to get Model T chassis across the floor of his Highland Park assembly plant -- essentially winching cars across the factory floor and adding a set schedule of parts at certain intervals. The implementation may have been a bit primitive, but Ford was on the cusp something big: applying the concepts of the moving assembly line to the complicated, costly process of automobile production.

Trio of Range Rover Hybrid prototypes completes trek from Solihull to Mumbai

A team of three Range Rover Hybrid prototypes has just completed a 53-day journey from Solihull, England to Mumbai, India. The route retraced the centuries-old Silk Trail, taking the team through 13 countries. The trucks and drivers experienced just about every type of terrain, as well as temperatures ranging from -10 degrees Celsius to 43 degrees Celsius, the latter translating to a very uncomfortable 109.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Car makers to be forced to disclaim ‘Official’ economy figures

We’ve banged on for a long time about the futility of official economy figures, especially as car makers get better and better at ‘gaming’ the official economy tests to produce the results they want. Much of the impetus to create the best headline economy figure for a car is driven by taxation, with car makers well aware that the better the official economy results are, the lower their CO2 will be (CO2 isn’t tested for – it’s just extrapolated from the official mpg) and the more appealing the car will be to buyers, particularly fleet buyers. But a ruling by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) against Audi could at least see car makers having to admit in their adverts that the ‘official’ economy figure bears no relation to what owners can expect to achieve in the real world.