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Mini celebrates 50 years since Monte win

IT'S 50 years since the iconic Mini Cooper S won the Monte Carlo Rally and to mark the occasion the famous car and its driver have been brought back together. Paddy Hopkirk took the Mini to its maiden win on the Monte Carlo Rally, and the car went on to win again in 1965 and 1967. It should also have won in 1966, but it was denied due to a technical infringement with its lights.

June sales get a pick-me-up from pickups

If there's a bright spot in June's tepid light-vehicle sales, it came from an unlikely segment. After slumping for several years as the economy tanked and gas prices spiked, pickup demand is rising faster than the overall sales gains of most automakers--serving as a pillar once again during the industry's fledgling recovery. And most of the buyers returning to showrooms are pickup enthusiasts, automakers say.

MIT researchers rethink electric-car batteries

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say a new battery design for electric vehicles could be a lightweight and inexpensive alternative. The goal for the team's three-year project, launched in September 2010, is to have a functioning prototype ready to be engineered as a replacement for existing electric-car batteries. At this point in the project, the prototype uses a “semi-solid flow” to separate the two functions of a battery--storing energy and discharging it when needed--into separate physical structures.