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

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Morgan AeroMax For Sale: Hammond Morgan – just one prang

Richard Hammond's Morgan Aeromax is up for grabs at £100k As well as the joy of having a BBC budget to play with endless cars around the world, being a Top Gear presenter is also quite lucrative. Beyond the not inconsiderable salaries attached to presenting TG, the profile Top Gear affords has made stars out of the previously unknown Hammond and May, presented them with other lucrative presenting jobs and let their every uttering in print hit the best-seller lists. Captain slow may drive a Panda around town, but he has an F430 for play.

Aston Martin CC100 Speedster Concept celebrates Aston Martin’s Centenary (video)

Looking like a modern interpretation of the legendary AM DBR1 Le Mans car from the 1950s, the CC100 is a dramatic ‘Speedster’ concept powered by Aston’s latest V12 and makes its debut – driven by Ulrich Bez – at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring Race event in Germany today (19th May 2013). Aston put together the CC100 in less than six months (did no one tell them 2013 was Aston’s centenary year until last Christmas?), and roped in carbon fibre specialists Multimatic to create the body and interior from carbon fibre, and Aston Martin used the VHM platform to create the underpinnings for the CC100, and have powered it with the latest version of the V12 AM11 engine with a six-speed sequential gearbox. Chief Exterior Designer, Miles Nurnberger, said: The brief was very simple, yet enormously testing: create something that reflects the 100 years of Aston Martin heritage and signals the future of the brand.