2013 Collector Car Price Guide on 2040-parts.com

Mitsubishi closes California design studio

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. closed its design studio in Cypress, CA last Thursday – just one month shy of its 25th anniversary. A result of the recent downturn in the global economy, the closure of the facility will eliminate 33 design positions as part of a personnel cull that has seen 60 people within the automaker's US operations lose their jobs.

TMG Sports 605 concept to debut at Essen Motor Show

While most of us are focusing on the LA Auto Show happening later this week, Toyota Motorsport GmbH is quietly revealing the TMG Sports 650 concept at the Essen Motor Show in Germany. The TMG Sports 650 is a hopped-up, twin-turbocharged V8 version of the normally staid Lexus LS460 sedan. In the concept, power grows from 386 to an impressive 641 hp at 7,450 rpm, while torque jumps to 564 lb-ft.

Heifer fuel

Unlike most people, when Michael Doyle drives past a herd of cattle grazing in a field, he doesn't see future tenderloins or T-bones. He sees fuel. The company Doyle co-owns, North Star Biofuels, is about to start production of biodiesel at a new $15 million, 20,000-square-foot plant in Watsonville, Calif., about 60 miles south of San Francisco.