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

Crunch watch Dec 08: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard and Simon Stiel Motor Industry 31 December 2008 14:05 Wednesday 31 December 2008• GMAC, GM's finance arm, said it would immediately revise its criteria for providing loans, after the US government bail-out of the General's credit arm. It will now supply credit for anyone with a score of 621 or more on the Fico scale, the scale used to assess Amercian customers' creditworthiness (Financial Times)• The news means that 80% of US consumers would now qualify for a loan from GMAC – which should improve sales in the depressed US market (Detroit News)• Chrysler is being lambasted for taking out full-page adverts in the American national press thanking the nation for supporting its auto industry. But critics point out this is a fresh waste of bail-out resources, as pages in the Wall Street Journal – one of the titles in which the ad ran – reportedly cost up to $264,000.

70-year-old Bugatti Type 64 chassis gets a body, the old-fashioned way

In a workshop north of Detroit, craftsmen have been at work for months pounding pieces of aluminum into panels. The panels will eventually cover a Bugatti chassis that has been bodyless for more than seven decades. Three Bugatti Type 64 Coupe chassis were built in 1939 by Jean Bugatti, and two of them got bodies before Bugatti was killed while testing the Le Mans-winning Type 57 C “Tank” in August 1939.

Mazda MX-5 Superlight leaks

Official pictures of the MX-5 Superlight Concept have leaked out ahead of Frankfurt We don’t think Mazda are intending building the MX-5 Superlight, it’s more a way of showcasing what can be achieved by radical weight saving. But don’t quote us on that. If Mazda gets big positive feedback they’ll probably turn it in to a production model despite their assertions it’s just a concept.