Coker unveils 1939 Indy engine rebuild at SEMA show

Joe Lencki built a DOHC straight six in 1939 that made an astounding (for the time) 417 hp. The engine was in cars that raced, qualified or tried to qualify at Indianapolis all the way up to 1963. It was an innovative monoblock design that, with those cam covers and cooling fins, looks even cooler now than it probably did 63 years ago.

Daimler considers building Mercedes C-class in U.S.

Daimler AG could move some production of the Mercedes-Benz C-class to the United States from Germany, a German newspaper reported Wednesday. The Stuttgarter Zeitung said some C-class production could be transferred to the carmaker's plant in Vance, Ala., from Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart, as part of a wider production shakeup planned by Daimler to reduce costs. In the future, the C-class sedan could be built in three locations: Bremen, Germany; Vance, Ala., and in China, the newspaper said.

Kia and BMW claim 2012 Red Dot Design Awards

Kia and BMW have been recognized by the 2012 Red Dot Design Awards judging panel, picking up the ‘best-of-best' awards in the transportation product design category. The awards, handed out March 15, single out the best-designed products from over 4,000 entries across a variety of categories. Kia's A-segment Picanto and B-segment Rio were both winners in Red Dot's ‘Product Design' category, fighting off competition from over 4,500 products entered by 1,800 manufacturers from 58 countries.