Intake Pipe on 2040-parts.com

The Viper Lives!

The Dodge Viper has been saved by Fiat and will continue in production. The real problems for GM and Chrysler were their appalling high-volume cars, stuck at least a decade behind Europe in both styling and efficiency, they were an accident waiting to happen. And the meltdown in car sales worldwide, coupled with the jump in gas prices in the US (which has now gone), signalled the end of the old ways.

Toyota talks powertrain plans

After trailing many of its competitors in the recent engine- and transmission-technology wars, Toyota Motor Corp. will launch a swath of powertrains in the next several years, a top powertrain r&d executive said. Koei Saga, senior managing officer in charge of drivetrain r&d, said that Toyota is investing heavily in turbocharged engines, larger displacement Atkinson cycle engines, continuously variable and fixed-gear automatic transmissions, and new hybrid and fuel cell technologies.

McLaren 12C Spider Neiman Marcus Edition. Christmas is coming.

This year’s special Christmas car from Neiman Marcus is a special edition of the McLaren 12C Spider with lunch with Ron Dennis thrown in. Last year Neiman Marcus offered the Ferrari FF but this year it’s the turn of the Brits again (the Neiman Marcus Christmas car was the Jaguar XJ in 2009) with the new McLaren 12C Spider, the convertible version of the MP4-12C (which, it appears, McLaren now want us to call just the 12C). The Neiman Marcus 12C Spider is a bog standard car (not that there’s much ‘bog standard’ about 616bhp and a 0-62mph of just 3.1 seconds) in Volcano Red, but it does come with the prerequisite of a Neiman Marcus car by offering something money can’t easily buy (although it self evidently can) – dinner with Ron.