Chevrolet Cruze Two-tone(blue&red) Led Light Truck Logo Emblem Tail Car Badge on 2040-parts.com

GM reveals new, highly modular Ecotec engine family

GM introduced its new modular family of Ecotec engines on Wednesday at its powertrain headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. The new, reduced-in-size three- and four-cylinder mills will replace three of GM's current engine families, eventually making their way into five of the company's brands. The Ecotec family will eventually spawn 11 engines in total, ranging in displacement from 1.0 liter to 1.5 liters.

Local authorities cashing in with CCTV fines

Councils are turning to CCTV cameras and spy cars to raise £312m in revenue, that’s according to Traffic Spies, a report published by civil liberties group, Big Brother Watch. Using a series of freedom of information requests, the group has discovered that many councils are continuing to use CCTV to hand out fines, despite the government’s Surveillance Camera Code of Practice, which highlights the need to use CCTV for traffic offences “sparingly”. Council parking ’spy car’ gets speeding ticket Cameras to catch illegal parking on the school run Yet despite this, the number of CCTV cars in operation has increased by 87% since 2009.

One Lap of the Web: Fake movie cars, Russian dash cams and 'Forza'

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- We all know most movie cars can be fake, but some are a step above the rest.