Centric Parts 123.40009 Rear Brake Drum on 2040-parts.com

2014 MINI John Cooper Works Concept revealed ahead of Detroit debut

The 2014 MINI John Cooper Works Concept (pictured) will debut in Detroit next month The new MINI was revealed just last month, and it sounds the gong for the start of the race to churn out as many variants on the MINI as BMW can manage. And the first of what will be many variants to come of the new MINI is this – the new MINI John Cooper Works Concept – revealed this morning ahead of a debut in a few weeks at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show. MINI aren’t letting on what’s under the bonnet of the new MINI JCW, but it seems almost certain it will be a more powerful version of the new 2.0 litre petrol for the Cooper S, which gets 189bhp in the Coopper S but will doubtless get something north of 200bhp in the new JCW.

General Motors names Mary Barra to head global product development

General Motors named Mary Barra head of global product development on Thursday, succeeding Tom Stephens, who was named global chief technology officer of the automaker on Wednesday. An engineer, Barra, 49, is the first woman to hold the top product development job at GM. Since 2009 she has served as vice president of global human resources for GM--a key post as the automaker restructured and emerged from bankruptcy protection.

Winning: Paul Newman's Ford 351-powered Volkswagen Beetle for sale

From the King of Cool to Cool Hand Luke, our movie hero vehicles are right at our fingertips. Now if we only had $250,000 to spend on a Volkswagen Beetle. The “Newman Bug,” as it was once called, is up for sale for a cool quarter-million dollars.