06 07 08 Honda Civic Engine Ecm 121578 on 2040-parts.com

Audi Space Frame comes full circle at Frankfurt motor show

Audi is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ASF, or the Audi Space Frame. After all, it was at the 1993 Frankfurt motor show that Audi wowed the world with the innovative all-aluminum Audi A8 prototype. And now, 20 years later, more than 750,000 cars have been built using this technology.

Volvo S60 Teaser Images

Volvo is the latest car maker to play tease with concept shots of their new cars, this time with the Volvo S60 for 2010. I’m really not sure that teaser shots work as a marketing ploy (which, let’s face it, is all they are). For a start, 9 out of 10 of the concept shots we see bear nothing more than a passing resemblance to the final car.

BMW i3 EV revealed. It’s clever, but it’s not exactly pretty

The BMW i3 electric city car (pictured) has been officially revealed The BMW i3 – the first of BMW’s production ‘i’ electric cars – has finally been revealed at events in London, New York and Beijing as BMW plots its course to bring a premium electric city car to the world. Looking much like the original Mega City Concept, the i3 debuts a number of innovations from BMW – which are very clever – but it also debuts perhaps the worst looking BMW we’ve ever seen, with its incongruous lines, bulging bonnet, odd shapes on the flanks and slab-backed rear view. But what underpins the i3 is clever indeed, with a lightweight inner body made from carbon fibre and carbon fibre reinforced body panels providing the skin, all conspiring to make the i3 light – 1195kg, despite 25 per cent or so of that being batteries – and very rigid.