Mercruiser Speedmaster #6 Dry Sump Lower Unit Shafts/gears on 2040-parts.com

Renault and Caterham to co-build Alpine sports cars

Renault and Caterham are to join forces and build a new range of sports car models together from early 2013, under the classic Alpine badge, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn confirmed today. At a press conference in Paris, he announced a new Anglo-French partnership which will spawn a new breed of sports cars for both brands. 'This innovative partnership with Caterham embodies a longstanding ambition: the creation of a sports car with the Alpine DNA,' said Ghosn.

New Mercedes SLS planned – & it won’t be a hybrid

AMG’s Tobias Moers has confirmed that a new Mercedes SLS is planned – as is a sub-SLS SLC – but it won’t come with hybrid power and electric assistance. But the Mercedes take on a supercar – the Mercedes SLS – isn’t set to go down the KERS route ant time soon according to AMG’s Director of Vehicle Development, Tobias Moers, who said that a next generation SLS – which is under development – would rely on weight saving and engine tweaking, just like the new Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series (pictured above), rather than electric assistance for its performance. Moers also said that Mercedes and AMG realised that the AMG brand doesn’t have the cachet of Ferrari and they have no plans to produce a car to go head to head with LaFerrari (or even the McLaren P1) so we won’t be seeing a hyper-SLS pushed upmarket in to the firing line of Ferrari any time soon.

GM to modify Chevrolet Volts to guard against battery fire

General Motors will add a structural reinforcement and devices to prevent overfilling of the battery cooling system in the Chevrolet Volt hybrid sedan to prevent the possibility of a fire after a side crash. The changes come seven months after a Volt caught fire three weeks after being crash-tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The government agency in November opened a defect investigation into the Volt because of the battery fire.