Ross Racing Pistons - Toyota 3sgte Turbo (86.5mm Bore 8.5:1 Comp) 99823 on 2040-parts.com

European Car of The Year 2012 to be announced at Geneva

The European Car of the Year 2012 will be revealed at next month's Geneva motor show, drawn from a shortlist of seven cars. In the first stage of voting judges selected their seven favorite cars from a list of 35 candidates that were put on sale in Europe in 2011, with January seeing the declaration of the seven finalists. The second stage of voting will find the European Car of the Year 2012, with the winning car announced on 5 March at the Geneva motor show.

New Mercedes S-Class Plug-in Hybrid to debut at Frankfurt Motor Show

The new Mercedes S-Class (pictured) will arrive with a plug-in hybrid version in September We’ve known Mercedes were planning a plug-in hybrid version of the new S-Class as far back as 2009, and it now appears it will debut – as a 2014 model – at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. When Mercedes revealed the Vision S500 Plug-in Hybrid Concept at Frankfurt in 2009, they had fitted it with a V6 petrol engine mated to a 44kw motor and a bank of lithium-ion batteries, and promised the hybrid S-Class would do 90mpg, have emissions of under 75g/km and manage 18 miles in EV mode. That means the hybrid S-Class would have performance comparable to the V8 petrol-engined S500 but attract no BIK or VED in the UK.

Concept Car of the Week: Heuliez H4 (1972)

With the H4, Heuliez set out into unexplored territories by offering a concept tailored to the needs of taxi drivers. If today's minivans are an integral part of our daily lives, this Peugeot 204-based H4 should be placed back in its original context in the early ‘70s, when this monovolume architecture still belonged to science fiction. Its dimensions are comparable to a Renault Modus although it's shortened by 140mm.