Engine Balance Shaft Sprocket-stock Melling S567 on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes-Benz CL gets a facelift for 2011

Three years after its introduction, Mercedes-Benz has given the CL a mid-cycle facelift, providing the big two-door with lightly altered bumpers--those up front with new LED daytime running lamps, reshaped headlamps, a more contoured hood, larger exterior mirrors with integrated indicators and revised tail-lamp lenses, among other detailed visual changes. More significant than the styling tweaks, however, are the changes underneath the hood, with the arrival of a new twin-turbocharged 4.6-liter V8 direct-injection gasoline engine--the first of Mercedes-Benz's advanced MoVe powerplants that aim to bring efficiency gains to its lineup. With 429 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, the new engine delivers 47 hp and 125 lb-ft more than the naturally aspirated 5.5-liter V8 it replaces in the four-year-old CL500--enough to lower the luxury coupe's 0-to-62-mph time by 0.5 second to 4.9 seconds.

Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.

Maserati GranCabrio MC, Maserati Levante & Maserati Ghibli: Paris 2012

Maserati has revealed the GranCabrio MC at Paris 2012 and revealed new names joining the current Maserati line-up – Levante & Ghibli. The GranCabrio MC is, more or less, the open-topped version of the GranTurismo MC Stradale and gets the same powertrain setup, with a 453hp, 4.7 litre V8 with 520NM of torque. But it doesn’t get the automated manual of the  GranTurismo MC and instead gets a more ‘comfortable’ regular auto ‘box.