Fuel Tank Yamaha Tt Tt500 on 2040-parts.com

Drivers 'not prepared for winter'

MANY DRIVERS are poorly prepared for the perils of winter motoring, according to the Highways Agency. As many as 45% of motorists do not make vehicle checks before the onset of bad weather and 28% do not take emergency kits. The agency's research also revealed that 53% of drivers do not even carry a de-icer.

Carbon-fiber parts and a software fix help create a lighter, faster Fiat

Chrysler Group's Mopar parts brand and Italian supplier Magneti Marelli have teamed up on a design exercise based on the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth that shaved weight and added horsepower. The vehicle, called the Venom, has a number of carbon fiber components -- hood and side mirrors, for example -- that makes it about 200 pounds lighter than the 2,512-pound Abarth. The Venom uses software updates and additional exhaust components to boost the Abarth's standard 160-hp 1.4-liter turbocharged engine's output by as much as 25 percent.

One lap of the Web: Syphilis, a scary monster and one huge remote-controlled car

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Karl Henkel, a numbers guru, brings perspective to the government's distracted driving fear mongering by sharing Mazda 626 monstrosity from 1:3 scale RC car that can travel up to 45 mph?