Beck Arnley 072-9080 Rear Brake Wheel Cylinder-drum Brake Wheel Cylinder on 2040-parts.com

Alfa Romeo to dump front-drive hatches for rear-drive saloons

Alfa Romeo is set to drop the Mito and Giulietta hatchbacks around 2015, as it switches to solely rear-wheel drive models, CAR's Georg Kacher reveals today (Friday 19 July). The sensational news, which will be music to car enthusiasts' ears, is part of a radical, new plan involving closer collaboration between Alfa Romeo and Maserati. Starting in 2015, Alfa will roll out a BMW 3-series rival, followed by a 5-series rival in 2016.

SEMA Pasadena: Public show in SoCal raises money for charity

Though we weren't at the very first SEMA show 42 years ago at the National Guard Armory in Los Angeles, the inaugural SEMA Cares Show and Shine last weekend must have been a lot like that first show four decades ago. SEMA Cares was held in the Pasadena Convention Center in Southern California. Organizers sold out all 155 spots for cool cars and all 25 booth spaces for vendors.

Honda readies its jet airplane -- for real this time

Honda would like to remind you that while journalists have spent the last few years fretting whether the Big H has "lost its way," the company has quietly launched, shelved, resurrected, and all but waited out its plan to dominate the business-jet skies, which we are to assume are less friendly than United's. The HA-420 HondaJet has been kicking around for more than 10 years now, but the very first production-ready plane just rolled off the assembly line in Greensboro, N.C., this week -- and, Honda promises, the $4.5 million business jet should be delivered in the second quarter of next year. Honda began taking orders for the jet in 2006, but the long recession squashed the market for private jets.