Auto Meter 5863 Phantom Fuel Pressure Gauge 2-5/8'' Electrical on 2040-parts.com

Lotus to double production – Return to Motorsport

Lotus CEO Dany Bahar plans to double production at Hethel and return to Motor Sport Through all the gloom and doom car makers have reported over the last year and more there has been one shining light which has seemed impervious to the downturn – Lotus. They’ve not only remained profitable but they’ve managed to bring to market a new car – the Lotus Evora – which has not only been pretty well universally praised but has a full order book to boot. Clever trick.

MIT develops self-transforming materials that behave 'like robots without robots'

A cross-disciplinary research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a suite of programmable materials, including carbon fiber, printed wood grain, textile composites, rubbers and plastics, that self-transform when exposed to an external stimulus. Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, presented a TED talk on 4D printing in 2013, where he demonstrated how a flat sheet of material could effectively build itself when exposed to water, like a robot without a robot. Following positive feedback from industries including aviation, automotive and manufacturing, his lab has been working on developing materials that change according to different activation sources, including heat, light, and air pressure, in addition to water – all of which have automotive relevance.

New Car Sales Accelerating Ahead

IT’S GOOD news in the new car market as the latest figures from industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reveal registrations already outstripping those of 2012 with one month of the year still to go. A total of 159,581 new cars were registered in November - a 7% rise on the figure for November 2012. Last month's figures took the year-so-far total to 2,111,819 - a 9.9% rise on the January-November 2012 total and already in excess of the year-end 2012 figure of 2.04 million.