Chevy Small Block Chrome Oil Pan on 2040-parts.com

Opel/Vauxhall Astra GTC

Opel/Vauxhall has revealed pictures of the forthcoming Astra GTC ahead of its official unveiling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Virtually unchanged from the GTC Paris concept of last year, the Astra GTC will go head to head with the Volkswagen Scirocco and Renault’s Megane Coupe. The third body style to enter the Astra family, the GTC shares only the door handles and roof aerial with its siblings.

MIT develops self-transforming materials that behave 'like robots without robots'

A cross-disciplinary research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a suite of programmable materials, including carbon fiber, printed wood grain, textile composites, rubbers and plastics, that self-transform when exposed to an external stimulus. Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, presented a TED talk on 4D printing in 2013, where he demonstrated how a flat sheet of material could effectively build itself when exposed to water, like a robot without a robot. Following positive feedback from industries including aviation, automotive and manufacturing, his lab has been working on developing materials that change according to different activation sources, including heat, light, and air pressure, in addition to water – all of which have automotive relevance.

Nissan X-Trail N-TEC+ launched

Nissan has launched a new X-Trail model – the X-Trail N-Tec+ – with ‘Sporty’ looks and extra gadgets. Last year we got the Nissan X-Trail Platinum Edition with all the options ticked and a price of almost £30k, and now we get the sporty version – the Nissan X-Trail N-Tec+ – with more gadgets and extra kit at £27,790. Nissan are trumpeting the X-Trail N-Tec+ as the ‘Sporty’ X-Trail (if that’s not an oxymoron) and pitching it between the Acenta and Tekna versions.