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

News watch March 2011: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour Thursday 31 March 2011• US President Barack Obama has strated all US government cars and trucks purchased from 2015 must be alternative-fuel vehicles (Automotive News)• Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has denied a report in Japan's Nikkei newspaper that he is leaning towards a formal merger of Nissan and Renault (Reuters)• Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne says that Chrysler's share IPO may now take place in 2012, depending on financial progress this year (Bloomberg)Wednesday 30 March 2011• Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called a report that the EV carmaker is a takeover target 'bad analysis' and remains confident the firm will stay independent (Bloomberg)• The BBC denies that it rigged a December 2008 Top Gear TV test of the Tesla Roadster, in response to being sued by the EV carmaker (BBC News)• First Group, the UK's largest public transport operator, has announced a £160m investment in new buses, ordering 955 new buses from UK manufacturers Wrightbus and Dennis over the next two years (BBC News)• Japanese production woes look set to continue into April. Toyota expects the majority of Toyota and Lexus production on 14 April (Automotive News)• Saab production has re-started again, following a half yesterday afternoon.

Lord Charles March takes the 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish up the Goodwood Hillcimb (video)

Lord Charles March – he of the Goodwood Festival of Speed – takes the 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish up the Goodwood hillclimb. The Hillclimb is a 1.16 mile road course, starting at the bottom corner of the Goodwood Estate where you take off on a tree-lined avenue before sweeping right and up past the main house before you enter a steep and narrow estate road, past unforgiving flint walls and woodland, before ending up by Goodwood’s racecourse at the top of the South Downs. It’s a thrilling run in almost any car (yes, we’ve been privileged to do it more than once) and now, with the ‘Moving Motor Show’ part of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, many more are getting the chance to try the hillclimb in car makers’ latest offerings - admittedly not usually at full tilt.

Top Gear Series 21 starts 2nd February – new video trailer

Top Gear Series 21 starts 2nd February Last weekend we brought you the first trailer for series 21 of Top Gear, although it basically consisted of Jeremy Clarkson moaning about lorries whilst driving a VW up! At that time, the BBC were still being cagey about when the new series of Top Gear (although we did expect it to start on 2nd Feb), but now BBC Media have managed to add it to their official schedule details so it’s now officially confirmed to start on 2nd Feb. Now we get a new trailer for the new TG Series, and this one is much more typical with mayhem and nonsense abounding including 1980s hot hatches, lorry racing, supercars, quad bikes on water, tanks and, of course, the McLaren P1.