Engine Water Pump Gasket Fel-pro 13877 on 2040-parts.com

BMW reveals M3 GT2-based Art Car

This brightly coloured beast is BMW’s latest Art Car, and the company's entry into this year’s Le Mans 24hrs. Based on the M3 GT2, the 17th Art Car has been designed by Jeff Koons and was unveiled last night at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. BMW might not need such help – the M3 GT2 has already picked up a first place at this year’s Nurburgring 24hrs.

Audi R8 China Edition: 80 cars – numbered 1-99

Audi has produced a limited run R8 China Edition with a total of 80 cars being produced in Blue and Grey numbered 1-99. Not only has Audi produced the China Edition R8, they’ve gone to some trouble to make it as appealing as possible to Chinese buyers by numbering the cars 1-99, but excluding any number ’4′. The number 4 is thought unlucky in China as it sounds like ‘si’, which means death.

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.