Afco Shock 1295 on 2040-parts.com

Mini cancels the mini Mini, aka the Rocketman

The Mini Rocketman, aka the mini Mini, has been shelved, CAR understands. BMW has recently signed off a slew of new Minis, many of which are revealed in the new February 2012 issue of CAR Magazine, but the baby Mini was not one of them. Why BMW has canned the mini Mini Mini showed the Rocketman concept as design study to show what a shrunken Mini true to the brand's core values could look like in the twenty first century.

Speedy green: Italdesign-Giugiaro's Frazer-Nash Namir

Whatever uncertainties await us on the other side of oil, there will still be speed. If the Frazer-Nash Namir is any indication, there will still be a frightening amount of it. One of the stars of this year's Geneva motor show, the Namir points the way to a responsible generation's supercar--and sets out to prove the technology for its mass-production cars, too.

Official: New Alfa Romeo Spider based on new Mazda MX-5

Following a MOU in May 2012, Alfa Romeo has confirmed they will be launching a new Alfa Spider in 2015 based on the next Mazda MX-5 Back in May 2012, Fiat and Mazda signed a memorandum of understanding to produce a new Alfa Romeo Spider built on the same platform as the next generation Mazda MX-5, and that has now turned in to a solid agreement with the new Alfa Spider arriving in 2015. But this won’t be a simple badge-engineering by Fiat to roll out a new Alfa Spider that’s just the same as the next MX-5 but with a different badge and grill, but will feature different styling and engines to make sure there is real differentiation between the roadsters. That means the new Alfa Spider getting Italian styling (which we hope has more than a passing nod to the original Alfa Spider) an, it’s expected, Alfa’s 1750cc engine we’ll see in the new Alfa 4C when that arrives.