Radiator on 2040-parts.com

Mini to return to the WRC in 2011 with 4x4

Mini is back in rallying, more than 50 years after it ruled the roost at Monte Carlo and beyond, giving a huge shot in the arm to the World Rally Championship. In typically audacious style BMW has announced it will campaign the Countryman SUV rather than the standard Mini, starting with selected WRC rounds in 2011 followed by the entire 2012 season.It’s also a return to WRC for Banbury-based Prodrive, the outfit behind Subaru’s legendary WRC success, who will develop the car and run the team. Prodrive last campaigned in the 2008 season, and have been developing the Countryman since early 2009.

Portugal commits to the Electric Car

Renault Electric Car [ad#ad-1] Portugal has today committed to building 1,300 recharging stations around the country by 2011, in a deal agreed with Renault to supply Electric Cars (EV). This is a further indication of the global rush to go green, with ‘carbon’ taxes and ‘carbon’ incentives sprouting from the desks of politicians throughout the West. But how logical is this phenomenon, and is it a fools errand, based on dubious facts’?

Rolls Royce to set up shop in South America

Rolls Royce showrooms planned in South America The paradox of the current economic malaise  is that luxury goods – and luxury cars in particular - seem immune from the problems of the mainstream. Rolls Royce – to many still the epitome of luxury motoring – is doing very well, and is now planning an expansion in to South America. The cynical may say that Rolls Royce want a piece of the drug money floating round South America in their coffers, but South America is far more than a bunch of drug barons freely spending illicit cash.