Porsche engineer Rolf Frech named engineering chief at Bentley

The Porsche-ization of luxury-car maker Bentley moved another step forward on Wednesday as Rolf Frech was named as its engineering chief. Frech, who has been Porsche's director of the complete vehicle engineering group for the past decade, replaces Ulrich Eichhorn, who is set to become head of the VDA, the German auto-industry association. Eichhorn, 50, joined Bentley as engineering chief in 2003 from Volkswagen, where he had been in charge of research and development.

Aston Martin signs Christian Klien as final factory driver

Ex-Formula One driver Christian Klien has completed Aston Martin Racing's factory driver lineup, the team said on Wednesday. He will join his new teammates in the all-new LMP1-class 007 AMR-One in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Klien competed in 49 F1 races since 2004 and drove for Peugeot in Europe's Le Mans Series, and in 2008, he had both the fastest lap and finished third in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Volvo’s KERS system improves performance and cuts fuel use.

The Volvo S60 with KERS Flywheel (pictured) boosts economy and performance As car makers continue to get bashed by more and more stringent CO2 targets from governments around the world, cleverer solutions are called for to squeeze the best performance and economy balance possible from their products. And Volvo’s new Flywheel KERS system does look promising. Volvo are currently running UK tests of a KERS flywheel system developed by Flybrid Automotive, which takes kinetic energy generated under braking and stores it in a flywheel fitted to the back axle.