N-style Ultra Graphics Kit - White N40-5615 on 2040-parts.com

Nissan GT-R tweaked for 2009 with more power

By Ben Pulman Motor Industry 09 December 2008 11:30 The Nissan GT-R still hasn’t gone on sale in Europe and it's already been treated to a few tweaks - new for 2009 will be more power, revised suspension, different wheels and tyres, plus a price hike. Quite, but the increase is a mere 5bhp, taking the output of Nissan's 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 from 473 to 478bhp. Nissan says the extra grunt comes from the fine tweaking of the electronics, though torque remains unchanged at 432lb ft.

MINI Coupe Concept Photo Image Gallery +Video

The MINI Coupe Concept photo gallery and video Well, BMW has gone a bit berserk on the photos they’ve sent us – plus a video of the Coupe – so we thought it was probably sensible to put this lot up separately from the main story and press release. It seems highly unlikely that with this much effort the MINI Coupe is going to stay a concept for very long. For us, it is the first sensible extension of the whole MINI concept and should be a big seller – but it won’t be cheap – think in the region of £30k.

Drayson Racing and RCA launch EV racing car contest

Drayson Racing has launched a contest with the Royal College of Art's Vehicle Design program to design electric racing car concepts for the FIA's new Formula E series, which is set to start in 2014. The RCA's students are asked to present designs that explore new themes within the technical constraints as part of this course's curriculum. The previous Drayson Formula E concept was developed by Sergio Rinland who will be part of a series of workshops and lectures on aerodynamics, engineering packaging, production engineering and materials, giving students the technical knowledge to develop their designs.