Cessna C661001 0201 Horizon Gyro on 2040-parts.com

Lotus Elise S Cup R poised for US consumption

Lotus can’t sell its road cars in North America anymore (dang safety regulations!), but that won’t stop them from sending some hardcore track vehicles here for the true enthusiasts. Enter the Lotus Elise S Cup R. The Cup R variant of the Elise sports a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, delivering 217 hp and 181 lb-ft of torque with help from a Magnuson R900 supercharger.

Seat completes industry's largest solar panel installation

SEAT HAS completed construction of the largest solar panel installation in the automotive industry. The huge 'Seat al Sol' array at the firm’s Martorell plant outside Barcelona is the size of 40 football pitches and generates 15 million kilowatt hours of power per year courtesy of the reliable Spanish sunshine. The electricity produced is enough to account for a quarter of the amount needed to build a year’s allocation of Leons, reducing the factory’s energy bills significantly and saving 7,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG: The gullwing takes flight

Before we reveal what it is like to hot-lap a prototype version of Mercedes-Benz's 6.2-liter V8-powered SLS around the 2.2-mile Sachsenring in eastern Germany, let us tell you one thing that puts the big rear-wheel-drive coupe into clear perspective. The SLS, planned to get its first public outing at the Frankfurt motor show in September, is not based on any existing Mercedes model. Rather, it has been conceived, designed and engineered from the ground up in a no-compromise approach by the German carmaker's in-house tuning division, AMG.