Chrysler Oem 4719860ac Lift Gate-latch on 2040-parts.com

The no-show cars: a reader rant on mad concepts

Instigated by Harley Earl at General Motors in the late 30s with the quaintly named Buick Y-Job, show cars, or concept cars, were presented to an excited public eager for new things. As the world recovered from a depression and then a war, these vehicles pointed to a better future that many people believed in, including the people who produced them. And, although many of the concept cars of the 50s, with their Jetsons plexiglass roofs and notional nuclear powered engines seem ludicrous now, in their time they weren’t that cynical.

2013 BMW M5 facelift & new M6 get Competition Package

The BMW M5 (left) & M6 with new Competition Packacge But the 2013 BMW M5 – and its coupe sister, the BMW M6 – will also be getting a Competition Package option for 2013, which is probably more interesting than the minor tweaks to the 2013 5 Series. The Competition Package adds more power to both the M5 and M6 – a whole 15bhp, taking it up to 567bhp – enough to improve the 0-62mph by 0.2s on both M5 and M6 as well as re-tuned dampers and springs – which lower ride height on the M5, but not the M6 – stiffer anti-roll bars, new M Diff and an improved Dynamic Mode which should allow you to play a bit more. On the cosmetic front, just like the 5 Series facelift, you’ll have to look quite hard to see what the Competition Package adds, but you do get a black finish on the tail pipes and a slightly different set of 20″ alloys.

Porsche Macan caught on video

The Porsche Macan – a Porsche Cayenne on a boil wash – has been spied out testing and caught on video. We’ve seen spy photos of the Porsche Macan before – Porsche’s take on the Audi Q5 – and they look more like a cut down Cayenne being used as a mule for the Macan’s underpinnings than an actual Macan. But it seems that the shots so far are actually the Macan as it’s heading for production, which means Porsche has, perhaps unsurprisingly, chosen the 911 school of car design as its inspiration for the Macan and just stuck a Cayenne on a boil wash.