Sealed Power 4092m Main Bearings-engine Crankshaft Main Bearing on 2040-parts.com

German new car sales drop 11 per cent – pre-reg accounts for 33.5 per cent

New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales. That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent. What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).

Reviving the rotary: Two roads to redemption for Mazda's Wankel engine

Mazda is killing production of its famed rotary engine when the last RX-8 sports car rolls out of the plant next summer. But the company eyes two roads to resurrection. The first is using an improved engine as the main power plant.

BMW i8 plug-in hybrid supercar is more economical than BMW thought

The BMW i8 does 134.5mpg on the official cycle. The production version of BMW’s plug-in hybrid supercar – the i8 – finally arrived at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year offering almost proper supercar price – £100k – along with an almost supercar 0-62mph of 4.4 seconds. What the i8 also offers is ridiculous economy figures thanks to its plug-in hybrid power (and thanks to the daft way official economy figures are calculated) and now, as the i8 gets ready to go in to full production, BMW has revealed that the official economy figures have just got dafter.