Gen 4 (2008-2010) Dodge Viper Roll Bar, Used on 2040-parts.com

Land Rover Defender to be built in Sri Lanka

The Land Rover Defender is to be built outside the UK in a new plant in Sri Lanka to produce Defenders for the region. Land Rover are assisting and training staff at a new assembly plant in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, run by Sathosa Motors PLC in a 50-50 deal with Land Rover distributors SML Frontier Automotive, with $1 million being invested to get the project up and running this year. It seems clear from the level of investment that this is simply an assembly operation using CKD kits from the UK for the Defender, but Sri Lank’s Daily News is reporting that there are plans to invest $500 million in the project.

Who's Where: Mamoru Aoki and Koji Nagano promoted to Nissan executive design directors

Mamoru Aoki and Koji Nagano have been promoted to Nissan executive design directors, reporting to head of design Shiro Nakamura. Mamoru Aoki is now responsible for the design and development of all Nissan brand passenger and electric vehicles as well as design strategy and is based at the carmaker's Design Center in Atsugi, Japan. Koji Nagano – previously design director at Infiniti – now manages the design development of the new Datsun brand and Nissan brand light commercial vehicles.

Dodge Charger Pursuit sets fastest ever lap for AWD car in Michigan State Police tests

In this year's Police Vehicle Evaluation conducted by the Michigan State Police at Grattan Raceway, a 2014 Dodge Charger Pursuit AWD has just set the fastest lap time ever recorded for an all-wheel-drive test sedan. The AWD Dodge Charger Pursuit set a time of 1:33.85, which was just a fraction of a second slower than the rear wheel-drive version of the car which set the previous benchmark at 1:33.70 back in 2012. The HEMI-powered sedan pairs a 370 hp V8 engine with an all-wheel-drive system, which uses a transfer case with front-axle-disconnect, which allows the Dodge Charger Pursuit to automatically go from RWD to AWD when conditions require it.