Dorman 565-019 Cylinder Head Freeze Plug on 2040-parts.com

Hyundai drops out of shrinking Tokyo auto show

The incredibly shrinking Tokyo auto show just got even smaller. Hyundai Motor Co., the last major foreign automaker which was scheduled to participate in next month's show, has decided to pull out with just weeks to go, organizers say. “Hyundai called last week and orally confirmed their intent to cancel,” said Toyokazu Ishida, who administers the international exhibition for the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.

First Sight: Mini

The first 'New' Mini was launched just five years ago, replacing the original Mini that had changed only in detail since its 1959 debut. Designed by Frank Stephenson, now head of design at Fiat, the current design has been a sales success and most significantly has been very influential in demonstrating how small cars need not be explicitly functionalist, smaller versions of larger car types or feel cheap. The new 'New' Mini, designed under the direction of Gert Hildebrand at Mini, is announced today with exterior design by Marcus Syring, interior design by Marc Girard and colour and trim design by Annette Baumeister.

Tomorrow's world: lightweight carbon composites

Once all the dust settles on The Great Battery Farce (the idea that the world's ills will be taken care of by sticking a battery in everything that moves and charging it up) we may eventually face up to the fact that the best way to move something around more economically, is to move less of it. That means making things lighter, a lot lighter. Car makers are working on it and manufacturers like Audi and Jaguar have already become masters in bringing aluminium to the mass production.