Rotax 912 , 914 Airbox on 2040-parts.com

Commute times increasing

COMMUTING times are starting to creep up after falling back during the recession, a new study has shown. Research by the TUC union revealed that men in their early 40s spend longest getting to and from work, at an average of more than 67 minutes a day. Commute times for women peak in their late 20s at 54 minutes and then start to fall as they get older, said the report.

Limited-production Audi A1 quattro has monster power to all four wheels

Audi is poised to take the supercompact class by storm with a wild 252-hp, all-wheel-drive version of the A1. To be produced in a limited run of just 333 cars, the A1 quattro harks back to Audi's rallying heyday of the 1980s. It has aggressive, competition-based styling, a turbocharged engine and the latest in all-wheel-drive technology, together with a heavily reworked interior boasting all of the sporting accoutrements to back up its impressive mechanical specification.

Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.