Lotus Eclat Elan Elite Espirit Europa Steering Wheel on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes brings virtual reality to life

MERCEDES-BENZ has created a real-life version of the racing car it designed for the Playstation 3 racing game Gran Turismo 6. Called the Mercedes-benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo, the full-size concept car previews the one that will appear in the computer game. The real-life racer takes its inspiration from Mercedes’ 1950’s racing cars, except the Vision Grand Turismo has LED lights where the classic racers had louvres.

BMW's N20 engine--four cylinders, more power

More power, greater torque, reduced fuel consumption, lower tailpipe emissions and less weight--but better? Before driving the BMW X1 xDrive28i, the first model to feature the German carmaker's new turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, we weren't so sure. The new engine, known as the N20 and set to lead a return of four-cylinder BMW models to North America for the first time since 1998, has been conceived to (indirectly) replace the company's long-running naturally aspirated 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder.

2012 Ford Focus ST gets 297bhp

Those clever chaps at SuperChips have given the 2012 Ford Focus ST a bit of an ECU tweak to deliver 297bhp and an extra 85lb/ft of torque. When we reported last week that WTC outfit Arena had in roped Ford’s tuner of choice, Mountune, to give the new Ford Focus a makeover, we were a tad disappointed to discover that they were tweaking the rather journeyman Focus Zetec S. That meant the Zetec S got 200bhp – a handy jump – but we bemoaned the fact that they hadn’t fiddled with the Focus ST to give us a car to fill the void left by the absence of a Focus RS in the current iteration of the Focus.