Nissan Avenir 1996 Right Side Step [3413700] on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Antarctic hot rods, Nissan BE-1 for sale and parting with a beloved Wagoneer

-- Here's yet another gem we first saw over at Hemmings: The first, and (so far as we know) only Antarctic hot rod ever built. It might be from 1968-'71; not much else is known, except that it was probably constructed by Navy SeaBees operating out of McMurdo Station. From the one photo we have, it looks like it could have a Jeep flathead four up front.

BMW plotting a hydrogen fuel cell EV

The BMW i3 EV (pictured) will eventually be joined by a hydrogen fuel cell BMW BMW has now taken its first fully-fledged step in to the electric car market with the BMW i3, revealed in full earlier this week. The i3 is a properly competent offering from BMW and it seems likely that, despite a price pushing on £30k even after the taxpayer bribe for EVs, that they will find a ready market in their affluent customer base for the i3 as a second (or third, or fourth…) car for local runarounds. BMW has even managed to negate range anxiety by offering the option of a range-extender engine in the i3 – basically a BMW motorcycle engine to charge the battery when it runs out of juice – so BMW’s customers who may wish to use their i3 for more than just a trip the shops can do so without getting stranded.

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.