1966 Ford Thunderbird Front Dash Center Defrost Speaker Grill Panel on 2040-parts.com

New techniques cut cost of carbon fiber

Carbon fiber, once so costly that it was the preferred material only for fighter planes and supercars, is catching the attention of weight-conscious automakers. Carbon fiber's cost is falling dramatically, thanks to production advances that let suppliers speed the material's finicky, and costly, curing process. One technological breakthrough that makes carbon-fiber auto parts more affordable may come from a process used to make carbon-fiber golf clubs.

Top 10 cars at the 2014 New York Auto Show

The New York Auto Show isn't one of the most high-profile events on the motoring calendar, but that doesn't stop it being a great showcase for all that the world's car manufacturers have to offer. The 2014 event gave a number of exciting new cars their public debut, including BMW's M4 Convertible and X4, the Ford Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition and the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG Coupe. Land Rover even presented a concept car vision of how the next Discovery will look.

Porsche 918 Spyder to get 875bhp to take on McLaren P1 & LaFerrari

The Porche 918 Spyder – Porsche’s hybrid supercar – is to get a power boost and go on a diet to better compete with the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari. But the duo of hybrid supercars at Geneva will become a trio at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September when the Porsche 918 Spyder gets revealed in final production form before heading for a select group of customers in 2014. It does seem to have taken Porsche quite a while to get the 918 Spyder in production-ready guise  but it seems they may have been waiting to see what McLaren and Ferrari had up their collective sleeves before settling on a production specification for the 918 Spyder.