Standard Motor Products Cv206 Choke Thermostat (carbureted) on 2040-parts.com

Video: The making of Forza Motorsport 4

Turn 10, the studio behind the design of Forza Motorsport 4 video game, has produced a video to revealed the lengthy process behind the creation of each car in their virtual pit garage. The video describes each, painstaking step from sourcing of the cars that will feature in the game to the development of the sound of each car. Some cars are scanned using equipment which gives accurate readings to 1/12,000 inch (around 0.002mm) is used to capture data that's imported into software used by anyone familiar with a design studio.

Chevrolet Trax is a rebadged Opel / Vauxhall Mokka

Chevrolet Trax - arrives at Paris in September The Chevrolet Trax – a compact SUV – has been revealed and will make its debut at the 2012 Paris Motor Show.  We’ve already seen the Buick Encore in the US become the Opel and Vauxhall Mokka in Europe, and now it’s to morph again in to the Chevrolet Trax, a compact SUV for GM to sell under another brand. GM has revealed that Chevrolet take on the Encore/Mokka will arrive at the 2012 Paris Motor Show in September before going on sale in the UK and Europe – and 140 countries around the world – in spring 2013. With Chevrolet planning the Trax as a world car it seems likely that the engines on offer will be a mix of those found in the Buick Encore and the Vauxhall Mokka.

Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.