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

Jaguar hybrid cars due in 2013-14

Jaguar will launch its own hybrid vehicles soon after Land Rover, CAR can confirm. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover is developing battery-assisted hybrid versions for both brands but its strategy puts part-electric Land Rovers first on the launchpad in 2013.Hybrid Jaguars – set to include the XJ and XF, but eventually every model – are therefore likely to be on the market by 2013-2014, using a similar eight-speed ZF hybrid transmission to petrol-electric BMWs.The staggered roll-out of battery Jags and Land Rovers makes sense: heavy 4x4s have come in the firing line from green protestors who label them Chelsea Tractors. Hybrid Land Rovers will trim emissions and – in plug-in hybrid mode – enable even big bulky Range Rovers to drive in zero-emissions mode into central urban areas emitting nothing more unsaintly than an electric whir.So which Jaguars will go hybrid first?It's likely that the largest models such as the XJ will receive the hybrid power packs first; large cars reap the greater benefit and can more easily swallow the additional cost, put at around £10,000 in today's money.JLR's Midlands engineering bases in Whitley and Gaydon now employ 100 engineers in the expanding hybrid powertrain business unit launched 18 months ago.

2011 BMW 5-series: Bavaria's midsize sedan takes cues from bigger 7-series brother

BMW's appetite for controversial design may have waned since the heights of former design boss Chris Bangle's oft-derided flame surfacing stratagem. But it shows no sign of fading completely, as we see in the first official photographs of the new sixth-generation 5-series, which goes on sale in North America by mid-2010. Codenamed F10, BMW's midsize sedan is restyled and reengineered in a bid to keep it ahead of key rivals such as the recently renewed Mercedes-Benz E-class and the Audi A6.

Chevy, Michigan Tech unveil a different kind of racer

At the 113th Army-Navy Game on Dec. 8, Chevrolet and students from Michigan Technological University unveiled a new hand cycle designed to make it easier for wounded vets to compete in racing events, including marathons. General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said GM will build 10 prototypes for use by the Achilles Freedom Team of Wounded Veterans in marathons across the country.