Chevy Center Floor Brace, Left, 1949-1952 on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes S63/S65 AMG facelift (2009) first photos

By Chris Chilton First Official Pictures 21 April 2009 12:39 Mercedes has revealed refreshed AMG versions of its S-class limo at the Shanghai Motor Show. The S63 and S65 don’t have any more muscle than before, but are slightly greener thanks to tweaks to their engine management systems. Under the bonnet you’ll find the same 518bhp 6.2-litre V8 or 604bhp 6.5-litre V12 as before.

Nissan’s new lightweight philosophy revealed

The leaked official drawings of the new Nissan Micra might have revealed the conventional styling of the company’s new supermini, but they gave little clue to the dramatically lightweight new platform that underpins it. The new Micra will be significantly lighter and more fuel efficient than the outgoing car due to a ruthless pursuit of weight reduction on the new V-platform (V = versatile), which on average has slashed 50kg from the new car's weight, and up to 70kg on some models. Project leader Noritaka Tsuru described the new package as a 'breakthrough car' that required a complete 'change in mentality' in how Nissan makes cars.

Toyota to unlock secrets of black-box recorders

Reacting to criticism that data from black-box crash recorders in its vehicles can be accessed only by the company, Toyota Motor Corp. is moving to ship hundreds of data-decoding machines to the United States and make them commercially available to help diagnose vehicle problems. The devices, known as event data recorders, are similar to the black boxes on airliners and record information such as vehicle and engine speed in the seconds before a crash.