Minn Kota Terrova on 2040-parts.com

Concept Car of the Week: Ford Forty-Nine (2001)

Over 1.3 million orders were placed for the 1949 Ford before it even went officially on sale. The revolutionary post-war design with slick slab sides and semi-covered wheels became a symbol of American optimism. "The inspiration for the Forty-Nine concept comes from the passion and excitement of the original, combined with the imagination of people across America who customized the car and turned it into what they thought a really great car should be," said J Mays, Ford's vice president of Design at the unveiling of the retro-futurist coupe back in 2001.

Honda goes social with the Sounds of Civic songwriting contest

It seems all automakers are tapping the social-media networks these days. From the Ford Mustang Mayhem package to the Toyota Prius plural campaign, conventional wisdom is there's nothing a few thousand Facebook fans can't handle. The latest automaker to hop the train is Honda, which is sponsoring a creative songwriting competition called the Sounds of Civic to mark the debut of the 2012 Honda Civic.

Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series planned?

It looks like Mercedes could be planning a 700bhp Black Series version of the SLS AMG Gullwing Currently, the top of the AMG Black Series tree is the SL65 Black. An awesome machine, but a bit of a lost soul. It loses the one thing that makes the SL special – the trick roof – and replaces it with a wave of power that isn’t actually that easy to put down on the road.