Honda Trx450r Trx 450r Engine Clutch Lever Arm #102 06 on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Mock the Week Edition

-- Mazda Europe designer Peter Birthwhistle talks about the future of Mazda: potential hybrid and electric powertrains for the Skyactiv-obsessed company, and how we'll all be driving Mazda-branded pods in the 22nd century. But he also mentions, rather interestingly, how certain Mazdas capture a quintessentially long-hood, RWD look -- and not just the Miata, either, which is RWD. No, it's the exhaust systems on those Skyactiv engines that force a longer, larger hood compartment, and the "long, flowing looks" not usually found on FWD engines.

New tech suggests windowless cars are on the horizon

For years students have presented windowless car projects, explaining how the view from outside would be projected within the interior. Now an aerospace company has created the technology that could hold the key to turning the dream into a reality. Spike Aerospace's upcoming S-512 supersonic business class jet replaces its windows with high-definition screens displaying footage of the panoramic views streamed live from micro cameras on its fuselage as tests have unsurprisingly shown that passengers are a little uneasy about not being able to see outside.

2011 Mazda2 Facelift revealed

The Mazda2 gets tweaked for 2011 Well, it’s sort of the 2011 facelift for the Mazda2, but that rather depends on what direction you come at this from. If you look at the UK and Euro offerings for the last year this is definitely a new nose and interior tweaks for the Mazda 2, but if you read our report in October 2009 about Mazda 2s coming off the production line in Thailand you’ll see that our ‘New, Facelift Mazda 2′ looks exactly the same as the Mazda 2 Facelift the Thai car got almost two years ago. But we have to be sensible and look at this from a domestic point of view – even if we do find it off that Mazda has taken two years to give the UK and Europe the updates coming out of Thailand two years ago.