Suzuki Rgv 250 Vj21 Power Valve Unit Box on 2040-parts.com

How Google's autonomous car navigates city streets

Google's self-driving car has been on the road for five years now, at various levels of autonomy. From the ease and relative serenity of California's arrow-straight highways, the car drove hundreds of thousands of miles with a greater level of concentration and mastery than the wandering attention spans of humans could accomplish. In 2012, Google shifted from the freeways to the cities, navigating a far more convoluted set of challenges: the slow-speed chaos that comes with any city, any suburb, any place with people and cars in it.

How the Nissan Qashqai reinvented the family car

The 2014 Nissan Qashqai (above) arrived in showrooms this week, but will the second-generation model be as groundbreaking as the first? Inevitably, the all-new Qashqai looks very similar to the outgoing model, but why change a winning formula? The original Qashqai was, arguably, the most successful new family car launch since the original Volkswagen Golf from 1974. And it came out of the blue, because Nissan was perhaps the last company anyone would have expected to come up with such a revolutionary design.

Ford FF1 road-legal single-seater at 2013 Goodwood FoS. Heading for production?

The Ford FF1 – a single-seat, road-legal track car powered by Ford’ 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine – will get a public debut at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Ford built the FF1 as a showcase for the abilities of its little 1.0 litre, 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine, and it’s more than proved the point that modern 3-cylinder engines with small displacements and a bit of forced induction can be very appealing. In standard trim the FF1 produces 123 horses, but suitably tweaked to deliver a more fulsome 202 horses the FF1 took on the Nurburgring and managed to turn in a time of just 7:22 – quicker than a Zonda F, Enzo Ferrari, Nissan GT-R and 911 GT2 RS.