Timken Bearing Jlm506849 on 2040-parts.com

Two Italian car events vie for your amore on Monterey weekend

Last week we heard that Concorso Italiano, everyone's favorite Italian car happening, had been bought and was on its way to a new location on a golf course on the Monterey Peninsula. Now it turns out there are two Italian car events scheduled for the same day--Aug. 14--on the same peninsula.

VW E-Bugster convertible concept car at 2012 Beijing motor show

Volkswagen, one of the biggest players in China's swelling car market, chose Beijing to unveil its latest E-Bugster - a good look at the forthcoming convertible version of the Beetle. We saw the E-Bugster in tin-top form at the 2012 Detroit auto show; now they've gone and chopped the top fully for Beijing. It's a two-seater speedster version of the Beetle hatch, driven by an 85kW electric drive system; essentially, the powertrain of this car is what will underpin the 2013 Blue-e-motion electric Golf.

The thinking man’s M3: Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo is world’s fastest diesel production car

German tuning firm Alpina has been tweaking BMWs since it started back in 1965 – in fact, it helped BMW develop the legendary 3.0 CSL, so it seems it knows its onions. However, its latest effort is something a little different. Not quite a conventional performance car, the 2013 Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo is actually the world’s fastest diesel production car, according to the firm.