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

Mercedes A 45 AMG goes off-road in the Desert (video)

The Mercedes A 45 AMG struts its stuff in the desert The Mercedes A 45 AMG is now starting to appear in small numbers on UK roads after buyers have been tempted to shell out nearly £40k for the quickest Mercedes A-Class there’s ever been. But it seems Mercedes don’t want us to think of the A 45 AMG as just a very hot hatch for the roads, but as a little hot hatch with some proper off-road pretensions. So they’ve taken the A 45 AMG off to West Africa to show it at play on the dirt tracks and sand dunes, and we have to say that Mercedes 4MATIC four wheel drive does seem to make a decent fist of coping with what’s thrown at it.

2014 Dodge Dart Blacktop to debut at Detroit auto show

The 2014 Dodge Dart SXT will get the Blacktop treatment at the Detroit auto show next week. The company offered the same styling tweaks last year on the Journey, Durango and Grand Caravan. The Blacktop trim adds 18-inch gloss black wheels, gloss black side mirrors, and a sportier interior to the small sedan, as well as a black split-crosshair grille, dark headlight bezels and a few other bits.

Electric cars must get noisier, ICE cars must get quieter

Electric cars will have to make a noise to protect pedestrians It’s four years since the Lotus solution for making electric cars noisy raised its head, since when the US has had a go at the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act in 2010 to do the same thing, the Japanese are playing too, and Toyota revealed the Prius Vehicle Notification System, and now the EU has decided its time to act to make EVs emit ‘noise’. Despite the most appealing part of an EV being that it makes our cities quieter, legislators worry about the blind, partially sighted and distracted pedestrian (think earphones and a Smartphone) being mowed down by a stalking electric car and feel the need to act. So the European Parliament has decided that by 2019 new models of electric vehicle will have to make a noise in cities, and that by 2021 all new hybrids and electrics must be noisy too.