Studebaker Window Frame, Nos, 1323459. Item: 2979 on 2040-parts.com

Audi R8 spyder appears headed for Frankfurt show

The much-anticipated Audi R8 spyder likely will make its world debut in production guise at the Frankfurt motor show in September. The drop-top version of the head-turning German supercar would share mechanicals with the coupe, which offers a V8 making 420 hp and a V10 with 525 hp. The R8 has a mid-engine layout and channels power to the ground with all-wheel drive.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Mazda CX-5 is born from the Mazda Minagi Concept

Mazda CX-5 - the Mazda compact SUV Back at the Geneva Motor Show this year Mazda pitched up with the oddly named Mazda Minagi Concept, a compact SUV which we said would arrive in showrooms as the Mazda CX-5. And it is. Mazda has announced that the CX-5 will be going in to production and that we will be seeing a production-ready version at Frankfurt in September, which suggests that the CX-5 will be in a showroom near you in early 2012.