Yamaha Sl 396 Ss 338 396 66 Cylinder Head Gasket See Years In Photo on 2040-parts.com

Local Motors 'Design Our Car' competition opens

Local Motors has opened its first-ever ‘Design Our Car' competition, which encourages collaboration within the manufacturing community. The open-source automaker is providing two of its Rally Fighter cars, one of which will be built at the company's micro-factory in Arizona while the other will be built live in the Emerging Technology Center at September's International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. Ideas from the design and engineering community are being sought to help design and select a skin for the Rally Fighter that will be built by the Local Motors team this spring.

Mini Clubvan (2012) first official pictures

Mini's relentless push to retro-ify all our lives has brought about the seventh model in its range: the new 2012 Mini Clubvan. Essentially a van-spec version of the curious Clubman small estate, it's aimed at small businesses and fans of outdoor hobbies with cumbersome, expensive equipment, says Mini. It's a production version of the concept seen at the 2012 Geneva motor show.

Mercedes S500 Plug-in Hybrid revealed – gets official 94.2mpg

The Mercedes S500 Plug-in Hybrid (pictured) has been revealed There will come a point when legislators wake up and realise that car makers are getting too clever at gaming their CO2 based taxation and change the goal posts. But until then, cars like the new Mercedes S500 Plug in Hybrid – revealed today – are the perfect company buy. That’s because the clever use of a plug-in electric motor coupled with a relatively frugal ICE engine – in the case of the S500 Plug-in a 329bhp 3.0 litre V6 and 80kW electric motor – produce official economy and emissions figures that are really only valid under test conditions but save a big chunk of tax for buyers.