Olds 455 Long Block on 2040-parts.com

Maybach is dead - Zetsche closes Merc's upmarket wing

Daimler is to announce the closure of Maybach, marking the failure of its upmarket division resurrected to battle BMW's Rolls-Royce and VW's Bentley subsidiaries. Chief exec Dieter Zetsche will tomorrow (Saturday 26 November) announce he's lost patience with Maybach in an interview with a weekend newspaper in Germany. No more Maybachs will be developed and stocks will deplete by later in 2012.

Polestar boosts Volvo power with factory software upgrade

Volvo and its performance arm Polestar have developed tuning software for C30, C70 and S40 cars fitted with the T5 turbocharged engine. It increases power by 23 hp and torque by 29 lb-ft by revising valve and spark timing. The software is compatible with 2008-model-year and newer cars and goes on sale on Nov.

BMW Roadster Concept: BMW Vision ConnectedDrive Geneva debut

BMW Vision ConnectedDrive We reported the other day that BMW were taking a roadster concept to the Geneva Motor Show, a car we expected to point the way to a new, smaller roadster – the BMW Z2. But it seems to be much more than just that. The BMW Vision ConnectedDrive – for that is the catchy little moniker BMW has attached to this concept – is a showcase for BMW technology and the layered styling language we’ve already seen in the Vision EfficientDynamics concept (can’t we have some snappy little monikers instead of Anglicising the German practice of just joining words together in a line to make a new word?).