S&s Cycle 106in. Big Bore Cylinder Kit - Black Powder-coated 106-3760 on 2040-parts.com

Volkswagen aims for lofty Beetle sales

The attractive new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle is expected to sell as many as 50,000 to 60,000 units a year in the United States. The car launches this fall. That level will be a big improvement over the latter years of the outgoing model, in which sales dwindled to just 15,000 a year, but it remains lower than the record figure of 83,000 achieved 18 months after the launch of the revised model.

Electric Porsche Boxster being developed

Porsche are developing and electric Porsche Boxster It’s not exactly a surprise that Porsche has announced its intention to develop an electric roadster based on the Porsche Boxster, after all – as part of VW – they have access to an awful lot of technology and they’d be foolish to let car makers like Tesla or Fisker potentially steal some future Porsche glory. So starting early next year – as part of a programme Porsche call Modellregion Elektromobilität – three electric Boxsters will be out and about with their electric powertrains in the real world to give Porsche feedback. Porsche are making it absolutely clear that this rolling lab for an electric Boxster is entirely complimentary to – and in no way undermines – their hybrid programme, which includes the Panamera and Cayenne Hybrid and the Hybrid Hypercar that should soon become the production Porsche 918 Spyder.

Last Lexus LFA leaves Motomachi Plant

The very last Lexus LFA – LFA #500 – has left the Motomachi Plant in Japan two years after production started and three years after the LFA was revealed. The idea of a Lexus supercar that cost so much seemed barking mad, but the LFA turned out to be a very special car indeed, not just for its build and performance but for what it meant for Lexus and Toyota – a future that would encompass many of the LFA’s design cues and DNA in future mainstream models. But three years after the LFA debuted, and exactly two years after the LFA went in to production at the TMC dedicated production facility at the Motomachi Plant, Aichi Prefecture, the last LFA – a white LFA Nurburgring Package #500 – has left the building.