Ram 1500 2500 3500 Front Seat Quad Cab, Set on 2040-parts.com

Aston gets ultra-quick paddleshift

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 28 September 2006 06:35 Aston Martin today unveils a new, Ferrari-style paddleshift transmission for the V8 Vantage. Dubbed Sportshift, the automated manual promises gearchanges in less than 200millisec, faster than you can swap cogs with the six-speed manual. Developed over the past 18 months with Magneti Marelli, the electro hydraulic six-speed box has numerous modes.

Koenigsegg planning an entry-level car – but it’ll still cost £500k

Koenigsegg are planning an entry-level car at half the price of the Agera R (pictured) Think of the cars that Christian von Koenigsegg has made since he started with the CC8S in 2002 and you think of them as extremes of the supercar genre; the Swedish engineering take on the bloated and massively complex Bugatti Veyron. Christian’s men in a shed in Sweden have gone on to make a series of progressively quicker and more impressive supercars, through the CCR, CCX and the Agera and on to the current most extreme iteration – the Koenigsegg One:1. But it looks like Christian has decided that his ambition to create the world’s greatest hypercar leaves room for a ‘Lesser’ Koenigsegg, a car that still has innovative engineering and extreme performance but comes at a lower price.

GM bets on new four-cylinder family in Europe; U.S. plans unclear

General Motors' European subsidiary, Opel, has revealed a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder direct-injection gasoline engine that will be offered from early 2013 across its lineup, starting with the soon-to-be-revealed Astra-based Cascada convertible. The aluminum block unit, the first in a new range of so-called SIDI (spark ignition direct injection) ECOTEC engines, forms the centerpiece of the company's downsizing strategy for displacement. The engine is claimed to have improved torque characteristics and a significant reduction in consumption compared with its predecessor.