Volkswagen W8 Engine Wire Harness on 2040-parts.com

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid (2011) first official pictures

Porsche has released details of its updated 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the 2010 original nearly won last year's Nurburgring 24hr race before (ironically) it retired with petrol engine failure.  The 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the lowdown Before this report disappears in a chorus of ‘it looks the same as last year’s one’, let's outline where Porsche’s engineers have been busy. At the unfashionable end of the car remains a 4.0-litre flat-six engine producing approximately 470bhp. Up front are twin electric motors, now producing 75kW of power each (up from 60kW) and combined these give the GT3 R Hybrid a 197bhp electric boost, which can be programmed to activate automatically via the throttle pedal, or manually selected during overtaking. F1-derived hybrid tech for the 911 GT3 R Hybrid Power for the two electric motors doesn't come from batteries, but flywheel accumulator technology from Williams Hybrid Power, an offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team. The flywheel, encased in a carbonfibre safety cell in the space where the passenger seat would be, spins at up to 40,000rpm and acts as a mechanical energy store for the electric motors. Regenerative braking feeds energy back into the flywheel system – no surprises there, as the technology is derived from Williams' exeprience with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) in F1.

Fiat gets approval to purchase Bertone coachbuilding business

Fiat S.p.A.'s bid for Carrozzeria Bertone S.p.A. was approved Thursday by the Italian government. Fiat will invest $215.9 million (150 million euros) over three years in the struggling contract manufacturer that has produced models ranging from the Lamborghini Miura to the Volkswagen Polo during its 96 years in business.

Ford B-Max (2012) - first photos of the production car

Ford will slide the covers off this production B-Max mini MPV at the 2012 Geneva motor show. It's little changed from 2011's B-Max concept car. The B-Max essentially replaces the fuddy-duddy (but quite strong-selling) Fusion in Europe and is one of the key reasons why we're not getting the EcoSport baby SUV shown at the Delhi motor show in January 2012.