Sunbeam Alpine Rapier Gearbox Mounting Plate. on 2040-parts.com

Williams & Renault back together in F1

Williams Renault F1 - Sir Frank Williams and Renaultsport's Bernard Rey For those of us who enjoy F1 (on the whole – although races like Canada rather than Valencia, it as to be said) but are very slightly past the first flush of youth, it’s rather sad to see Williams languishing in the ranks of also-rans on this year’s grid. With one of the greatest race-brains in Sir Frank Williams, and still one of the best F1 drivers in Rubens Barrichello, it would be great to see Williams at least running with the second tier of cars. But this season so far they have amassed just 4 points.

Better Place Electric Car visitor centre opens

Better Place have opened a visitor centre in Israel to demonstrate their battery swap technology for electric cars Last October we wrote about a start-up company in Israel – Better Place – that had a new way forward for electric cars by taking the purchase of battery packs out of the equation, and was developing a system for ‘Battery Swap’ stations where electric car owners could drive in and swap their battery pack for a fully-charged one in a few minutes. That story first brought to our attention our favourite quote of last year – by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – who said “A hybrid is like a mermaid: if you want a fish, you get a woman; if you want a woman, you get a fish.” Which probably explained why Nissan – and its partner Renault – got involved with Better Place. Better Place aims to address the main concerns of electric car drivers by making the battery packs in electric cars ‘swappable’.

Hennessey Performance upgrades the Ford Mustang Boss 302

The tuner guys at Hennessey Performance took the Ford Mustang Boss 302 behind their curtain, plopped a supercharger on top--among other things--and headed to the drag strip. The outcome? Hennessey says 11.9 seconds at 124 mph for the quarter-mile--and that's with a 0-to-60-mph time at a Porsche-like 3.9 seconds.