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

IFR Aspid – simply astonishing

The IFR Aspid drew a lot of attention at this year's Salon Prive Not the best known name in the motoring world, IFR – and it’s main man, Ignacio Fernández – are never the less a force to be reckoned with, and we’re pretty sure we’ll be hearing a whole lot more from them before too long. So what’s the IFR Aspid, I hear you asking. Think something akin to a Caterham 7, but sporting technology from Buck Rogers and with none of your garden-shed makers bare-bones creature comforts.

Think, again: Norwegian electric-car maker looks for U.S. plant

Think, the Norwegian electric-car maker, says it plans to build an assembly plant and a technical center in the United States. After financing failed in the wake of the collapse of credit markets in late 2008, the company entered Norway's debt-settlement process (the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy), and production of its recently redesigned Think city car was halted. It continues operating under a $6 million interim funding measure while it pursues additional financing.

Ram introduces CNG-powered pickup

Aside from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles have usually been converted after the fact, generally for fleet use. Chrysler is hoping to carve out a niche in the corporate-pickup segment by selling a factory-built CNG Ram 2500 that can seamlessly switch over to gasoline operation when the natural-gas tanks run dry. The twin 4.6-cubic-foot CNG tanks (which store the equivalent of 18.2 gallons of gas) take up a section of the bed, while an eight-gallon gasoline tank provides fuel during start-up and then reserve capacity when the compressed tanks are tapped out, allowing the bruiser a measure of operational flexibility.