Hughes Performance 22-30l Torque Converter on 2040-parts.com

Will the new Ford Mondeo (2014) end up a re-badged U.S. Ford Fusion?

With the 2013 Ford Mondeo now becoming the 2014 Mondeo with the closure of Ford’s Genk factory, will Europe now get a re-badged US Ford Fusion? The Genk Plant makes the Ford Mondeo and the Galaxy and S-Max (which are built on the Mondeo platform) and, at its peak, was building over 300,000 Mondeos and over 100,000 MPVs. But by last year the Mondeo production had dropped below 100,000 mark and MPV production had dropped to 80,000.

Studio Focus: SAIC European Design Centre

SAIC European Design Centre Brands MG and Roewe Established 2010 (in current guise) Location Longbridge, UK Staff 35 Studio leader Martin Uhlarik SAIC's presence in Europe is limited at best through its MG brand, but if its sales are almost exclusively concentrated in its home Chinese market currently, MG's design roots are firmly planted in its spiritual British soil. All current Morris Garages cars – the MG6, 3 and 5 (in chronological order) as well as the CS concept shown at the Shanghai motor show in April – are products of SAIC's European Design Centre in Longbridge, near Birmingham in the English midlands, albeit finalized in Shanghai. The studio was opened in 2010 after a £5million investment in SAIC's UK Technical Centre but such are the ambitions of the company that it has already received a further £1.5million investment to almost double its size.

Jaguar XFR – the Cat’s out of the bag

The XFR is Jaguar’s answer to the barn-storming saloons from Mercedes, BMW and Audi, and if looks and spec (and the experience of driving the non-blown XF) are anything to go by, the new big Cat should get the cream. The XFR gets the new version of Jaguar’s AJV8 engine, which is a 5.0 litre supercharged lump, producing a whopping 510bhp, with the usual limited top speed of 155mph, and a 0-60 of around 4.5 seconds. The New Jaguar XFR surfaces ahead of Detroit Visually, the XFR gets the ‘Aggressive’ look, with big, chrome-trimmed air inlets at the sides (a Jaguar theme?