Wise Seat Pedestal 24" on 2040-parts.com

Ford's forgotten T-Drive program

Digital boss Andy Stoy recently passed along this little piece of nearly forgotten Ford history from the early 1990s. We know that our girl Murilee Martin dug this up way back in 2010, but the wonder of the Ford T-Drive system is worth revisiting. According to Drivingenthusiast.com, “T-drive is a system consisting of a transversally located inline engine, a transmission and associated packaging.” The transmission is mounted to the side of the engine, or the back, depending on how you look at things.

Toyota A-BAT concept (2008): first official pictures

By Guy Bird First Official Pictures 15 January 2008 13:39 Toyota’s latest Detroit concept flips on its head the current orthodoxy that pick-ups can’t be green. The A-BAT is a compact pick-up, akin to a RAV4 in size, featuring a four-cylinder petrol/electric hybrid and solar panels built into the top of the dashboard efficient enough to power the sat-nav and other interior tools. The much-vaunted Prius was indeed an influence in the A-BAT’s green-tinged exterior design leanings.

Limited-production Audi A1 quattro has monster power to all four wheels

Audi is poised to take the supercompact class by storm with a wild 252-hp, all-wheel-drive version of the A1. To be produced in a limited run of just 333 cars, the A1 quattro harks back to Audi's rallying heyday of the 1980s. It has aggressive, competition-based styling, a turbocharged engine and the latest in all-wheel-drive technology, together with a heavily reworked interior boasting all of the sporting accoutrements to back up its impressive mechanical specification.