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

Exclusive: Derek Jenkins to become Design Director at Mazda

Derek Jenkins, former chief designer at the Volkswagen Group design studio in Santa Monica, will become the new Director of Design at Mazda's R&D Design Center in Irvine, CA. Jenkins, who resigned from Volkswagen on March 17th, will be filling the position previously held by Franz von Holzhausen, who left Mazda in August last year to become Design Director at Tesla Motors. "I'm excited to take on something new," Jenkins told CDN.

Electric Ford Focus starts European production

The Electric Ford Focus (pictured) is now being built in Europe The electric Ford Focus is already in production, and on sale, in the USA, and now it’s gone in to production in Germany ahead of arriving with owners in July. So far, the Focus EV hasn’t been an overwhelming success in the US, with just over 700 sold in the first five months of 2013 but, even though Ford see the EV as a niche product, they’re still hoping to make a dent in sales of the Nissan LEAF in Europe. The Focus EV comes with an electric motor producing 143bhp and powered by a bank of lithium-ion batteries.

McLaren MP4-12C named

The McLaren P11 has now been named - it will be the McLaren MP4-12C Update 9/9/09: McLaren has now released full details and pictures of the McLaren MP4-12C Update 10/0/09: Ron Dennis talks about the MP4-12c and McLaren Automotive’s future plans. But of course it’s about McLaren history, and more than a passing nod to its F1 heritage. The McLaren F1 cars are all dubbed MP4, but I think we’d prefer to have seen something like McLaren F2.