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

MIT researchers rethink electric-car batteries

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say a new battery design for electric vehicles could be a lightweight and inexpensive alternative. The goal for the team's three-year project, launched in September 2010, is to have a functioning prototype ready to be engineered as a replacement for existing electric-car batteries. At this point in the project, the prototype uses a “semi-solid flow” to separate the two functions of a battery--storing energy and discharging it when needed--into separate physical structures.

The new Mercedes-Benz CLA Super Bowl spot

It takes a certain kind of chutzpah for a German company that supplied the Nazi war machine to use a track that features the line, “I rode a tank / Held a general's rank / When the Blitzkrieg raged / And the bodies stank.” Apparently, Mercedes-Benz has exactly that sort of chutzpah. The premise, of course, is that you don't have to sell your soul to afford the company's stylish new CLA. That for under 30 grand, you too can dance with Usher, be pulled into red-carpet photographs with Kate Upton, and compete in Formula 1 races.

Next Jaguar XJ takes styling cues from the XF

Jaguar is putting the finishing touches on its heavily revised 2011 XJ sedan, remaking its flagship sedan in the mold of the XF sedan. Based on a re-engineered version of today's all-aluminum XJ chassis introduced with the sedately styled 2004 model, the next XJ will be significantly different in appearance, drawing its coupelike-sedan inspiration from the Ian Callum-penned XF. "People know that something is coming, but they're going to be very surprised," says one source involved in the project code-named X351.