Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear 1995 Coil Spring [5257551] on 2040-parts.com

Parents 'risking kids' lives' on defective tyres

MORE THAN 30% of parents are ferrying their most precious cargo around on illegal tyres, a new study has found. Road safety charity TyreSafe has reported that one of its members carried out a study at a Shropshire primary school, where almost a third of the cars dropping children off at school were wearing tyres that were either past their wear markers, were incorrectly inflated, had bulges or cuts, or had foreign objects sticking out of them. “The start of the new academic year means that we will be experiencing many more cars on the roads, particularly at peak times of the day,” comments Stuart Jackson, chairman, TyreSafe.

Optima Sports pushes two new tire innovations

WITH VIDEO -- If John Scott has his way, every car on the road will be shod with tires featuring built-in camber. Scott is the owner of Wisconsin-based Optima Sports, a small automotive-engineering firm, and inventor of Camber Tires--tires with a constantly decreasing diameter. According to Scott, his tires offer multiple benefits, including enhanced handling, increased stability, reduced tread noise, improved fuel economy and better safety by reducing rollovers.

Merc to revive straight six, plus 4cyl and smaller V8s

Mercedes has just signed off a new engine family which will see most full-sized Mercs in future run four-cylinders, downsized V8s and… straight sixes. A friendly Mercedes engineer recently met CAR to disclose the engine plans for future models, including the surprise disclosure that Merc plans to switch to straight sixes, like its rivals over in Munich.  It's fair to say I almost choked on my breakfast croissant when I found out the details of the next MB engine generation which has just been signed off for release in 2015. Mercedes' future four-cylinder engines Again, there will be a family of new low-cost fours, and the big-bore V8s will be replaced by a series of downsized turbocharged 4.0-litre units.