Whelen Flash Tube Assembly (3196) on 2040-parts.com

Ford B-Max arrives in production guise

The first photo of the production-ready Ford B-Max Ford has released the first picture of the new B-Max, which will debut at Geneva in March, a year from the debut of the B-Max Concept. The Ford B-Max is a long overdue replacement for the Ford Fusion, the one car in Ford’s range that is way past its sell-by date, and was shown as a concept at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011. Now, one year on, the Ford B-Max is to debut in production guise at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.

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.

The Viper Lives!

The Dodge Viper has been saved by Fiat and will continue in production. The real problems for GM and Chrysler were their appalling high-volume cars, stuck at least a decade behind Europe in both styling and efficiency, they were an accident waiting to happen. And the meltdown in car sales worldwide, coupled with the jump in gas prices in the US (which has now gone), signalled the end of the old ways.