Khrome Werks 1in. Oem Replacement Handlebar - Chrome 300037 on 2040-parts.com

Design Contest: Interior Motives Awards 2011

Shortlisted entries have been announced for the 2011 Interior Motives Student Design Awards. After individual deliberation by our panel of renowned senior designers, students being tutored at colleges in a diverse range of countries including Israel, the Czech Republic, Australia, Taiwan, Canada and China, as well as in the established centres of Europe, the USA and Japan/Korea, have made the 68-strong shortlist of potential winners. Full details of this year's contenders can be viewed here.

Mercedes-Benz introduces nine-speed automatic gearbox

Mercedes-Benz has quietly slipped a new nine-speed automatic into its lineup as standard equipment on the European market E350 BlueTec. The new in-house produced unit, known internally under the name 9G-Tronic, has long been slated for selected Mercedes-Benz models. However, its existence was officially denied until the weekend, when Mercedes-Benz's German language website configurator went live with various updates for the E-class lineup -- including an entry signaling the 9G-Tronic is now available on the standard rear-wheel drive E350 BlueTec in place of the older seven-speed.

2013 Land Rover Freelander 2 facelift coming

Land Rover are working on a mild facelift for the Freelander 2 for 2013 as it comes towards the end of its shelf life. It’s almost two years since Land Rover last facelifted the Freelander 2, a car that’s been with us since 2006, when they threw in some minor cosmetic tweaks, the first FWD Land Rover and gave us a more powerful diesel option. Somewhere prior to that Land Rover had quietly dropped the V6 petrol engine (in the UK, at least), so adding a more powerful version of the 2.2 litre diesel made sense as did providing a lower price entry point in the FWD Freelander.