Monroe 58551 Rear Sensa Trac Load Adjusting on 2040-parts.com

Roewe 550 - the next MG?

By Keith Adams Motor Shows 22 April 2008 12:53 The new Roewe 550 unveiled at Beijing this week is Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation’s promising new mid-range hatch, but could yet turn into the next MG saloon - and be built in Europe. Although it doesn’t look like a groundbreaking effort, the Roewe 550 is one of the Beijing motor show’s hottest debutants. Designed as SAIC's successor to the Rover 45, the car has been designed and engineered in Britain by ex-MG Rover engineers.

One Lap of the Web: A rally car drinks beer

-- Thierry Neuville was somewhere on his way back to the pits after finishing the final stage of the WRC Mexico when his Hyundai i20 rally car sprung a leak: The hole in the radiator was bleeding coolant at a frightening rate. If Neuville didn't make the 33 kilometers back, he would lose his second place standing behind Volkswagen and all would be lost. (Alas, them's the breaks in the sometimes-quixotic rulebook of the World Rally Championship.) Well, lucky for Neuville, his sponsors at Corona had presented him with a massive bottle of beer, which he then proceeded to pour into the radiator.

CES: Cranking up Harman's QuantumLogic 3D surround-sound system

Yesterday we reported how Audi was readying a lavish 3D sound experience with 23 speakers and 1,400 watts of goosebump-inducing audio power. Not to be outdone, Harman had been quietly developing a system of its own: Quantum Logic 3D brings together 25 speakers and more than 2,000 watts of Tubthumping power to a new car near you, like driving inside Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Sitting inside the demonstration BMW 7-Series that Harman painstakingly lifted into the Studio at the Palms, Global Audio Engineering vice president Phil Muzio explained, "great music is delivered in stereo, yet our consumer research indicates that people enjoy surround sound." QuantumLogic 3D's surround sound expands beyond the boundaries of the vehicle's cabin, providing "a sense of detail and spatial placement that you don't get in stereo." Five height component speakers mounted in the corners of the headliner, and above the rearview mirror, elevates audio beyond the confines of the roof, "almost like you're in a convertible," said Muzio.