Grote 67006 - Adapter Plug For Hard-shell Connectors on 2040-parts.com

Final second-generation Mini leaves production line

THE FINAL Mini hatchback of the current generation has left the production line in Oxford, after more than a million were made for customers around the world. There’s no time for production staff to rest, though, with assembly of the new Mini hatchback already under way alongside the many other Mini model derivatives. In total, more than 1.8 million hatchback Minis have been built at the factory since 2001, of which 1,041,412 were the currently outgoing model.

Alfa Romeo 4C in action at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (video)

The Alfa Romeo 4C made its dynamic debut (pictured) at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed The long awaited Alfa Romeo 4C finally made its debut in production spec at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and at the weekend the 4C made its dynamic debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. To make sure the 4C made as big an impact as possible at Goodwood, we’d expected Alfa to run up the hillclimb in the launch edition 4C, which gets plenty of extra goodies including a carbon fibre body kit and spoiler, but this 4C looked to be a standard model. But even though we’d like to have seen the launch edition with its extra carbon fibre goodies, the standard car gets exactly the same 1750cc 4-cylinder petrol engine with enough get up and go, 236bhp, to move the lightweight 4C (under 900kg) to 62mph in just 4.5 seconds.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan shut plants as big earthquake hits Japan

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. suspended production at plants in Japan today and were assessing damage after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast, triggering a tsunami and shaking buildings as far away as Tokyo.