2009 Road Glide Touring Seat on 2040-parts.com

Leno lines up electric Ford Focus for celebs to turn fast laps

Car collector Jay Leno's new prime-time TV show launches a new segment on Friday night, challenging visiting celebrities to set a fast lap time on a track outside the entertainer's studio. The car that Leno hands to his guests is an electric-powered Ford Focus--a harbinger of a battery-powered Focus that Ford plans to put on sale in 2011. Leno's electric Focus uses the more-modern European Focus as its base, not the well-aged U.S.

Audi, Honda, Hyundai, and GM to bring Android to cars

General Motors, Audi, Honda and Hyundai have joined forces with Google and Nvidia to form the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA), their overarching goal being the integration of Google's Android software into automotive infotainment systems. The OAA will use Android's open development model to bring a greater variety of functions to car infotainment systems, which have noticeably lagged behind smartphones when it comes to capability due to long development periods, fast changing technology, and a glut variety of incompatible systems. The alliance's first order of business will be to develop new Android platform features to enable the car to become a connected Android device.

Enzo Ferrari died 25 years ago today

The word “Ferrari” is evocative enough as it is, but add “Enzo-era” to the mix and we imagine a very specific type of machine -- a vehicle that is raw, passionate, perhaps a bit prickly, but above all, utterly unique and irreplaceable. There's a reason Enzo-era Ferraris are magical: Enzo Ferrari himself. Born in 1898, Ferrari joined the Alfa Romeo racing team in 1920, established Scuderia Ferrari in 1929 and put his name on a V12-powered race car in 1947.