Apexi Neo Afc Air/fuel Controller on 2040-parts.com

Honda readies its jet airplane -- for real this time

Honda would like to remind you that while journalists have spent the last few years fretting whether the Big H has "lost its way," the company has quietly launched, shelved, resurrected, and all but waited out its plan to dominate the business-jet skies, which we are to assume are less friendly than United's. The HA-420 HondaJet has been kicking around for more than 10 years now, but the very first production-ready plane just rolled off the assembly line in Greensboro, N.C., this week -- and, Honda promises, the $4.5 million business jet should be delivered in the second quarter of next year. Honda began taking orders for the jet in 2006, but the long recession squashed the market for private jets.

Video: BMW’s beautiful Design Portrait of Karim Habib

We're often inundated with videos from OEMs. Many are thinly-disguised PR-laden party political broadcasts but occasionally we're presented with gems such as this Design Portrait of Karim Habib from BMW. Ok so we don't really believe the Head of Design, BMW Automobiles sits dreamily sketching at a perfect desk with only a delicate espresso for company or that he cruises Munich in a (gorgeous) 2002 tii oldtimer for inspiration, but as an insight into what makes Habib tick, his design philosophy, and how he came to be in such a position, it's a beautifully-shot treat.

Nissan creates 'scent of the future'

NISSAN has created what it calls ‘the scent of the future’, representing what Planet Earth might smell like in an imagined world where everyone drove zero-emissions vehicles. By teaming up with master perfumer and Aroma Academy Scientist Dr George Dodd, the firm has created its ‘aromatic blueprint’ for the future. Dodd, reportedly inspired by long walks in the Scottish Highlands, has created an in-car fragrance that he says is proven to inspire ‘a positive sense of well-being’ in people who smell it.