Toyota Bb 2000 F Exhaust Muffler [2422220] on 2040-parts.com

Ford to sell two concepts at auction

Amongst the numerous one-off concept cars and rare historic vehicles set to be auctioned off at the forthcoming RM Auctions sale in Monterey, California, Ford has contributed two of its own unique concept cars to be sold. All proceeds of the sale will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) charity. The race-inspired 2005 Ford Shelby GR-1 concept and the 2001 Thunderbird Sports Roadster concept will be presented by the world's largest collector car auction house on August 19th in California as part of its Monterey sale. It is believed that the 2001 Shelby will sell for between $150,000 and $200,000 while the 2001 Thunderbird concept will fetch between $125,000–$175,000. There will be no reserve on the cars.

Mercedes SL (2012): aluminium saves 8% weight

Mercedes' new 2012 SL will weigh a solid 140kg less than today's SL roadster - a significant saving of some 8%. This crash diet has been enabled by the adoption of aluminium for the new SL. The learnings from the SLS gullwing are now trickling down to the higher-volume SL, which will be revealed in December 2011.

(Another) Audi A3 e-tron hybrid at Geneva 2013

The Audi A3 e-tron – a hybrid A3 EV based on the A3 Sportback – will debut at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show as a concept. This Audi A3 e-tron isn’t a pointless electric supercar – like the R8 e-tron – or another rollout of the A3 e-tron BEV, but a hybrid A3 with a proper ICE engine coupled to an electric motor, just like the A3 e-tron concept we saw in Shanghai in 2011 That still means a lot of complicated and heavy technology to game the silly official economy tests and come up with ‘official’ economy figures of 158mpg and 35g/km, but the A3 e-tron would – if it were made – offer big tax breaks for company car drivers. The A3 e-tron gets a 1.4 litre direct injection petrol engine good for 148bhp working with an electric motor good for an extra 100bhp.