Drr/drx 50 70 90 Brake Lever Left Rear Brakes Stock Steering Stem Clamps on 2040-parts.com

Lotus Elise S Cup R poised for US consumption

Lotus can’t sell its road cars in North America anymore (dang safety regulations!), but that won’t stop them from sending some hardcore track vehicles here for the true enthusiasts. Enter the Lotus Elise S Cup R. The Cup R variant of the Elise sports a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, delivering 217 hp and 181 lb-ft of torque with help from a Magnuson R900 supercharger.

Umea Olme Spyder project

While Swedish automaker Saab was going through tumultuous times and Geely was in the process of buying Volvo from Ford, first year MA students in Transportation Design at Sweden's Umea Institute of Design were busy creating a one-off roadster for an independent car maker: the Olme Spyder. Created in collaboration with Ove Bengtsson, an engineer with a personal passion for building his own vehicles, the students were asked to design their own interpretation of a progressive and innovative roadster, developing the concept from a sketch into a full-scale model. Based on an Opel Agila donor car, the concept's 650kg steel monocoque chassis was created by Bengtsson himself to accommodate a mid-mounted engine.

General Motors fires back at Volkswagen

General Motors issued a terse response this week to published comments by Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, who suggested to the German press that Opel could be sold to a Chinese competitor. Detroit-based GM called Winterkorn's comments “regrettable” and accused him of “fanning speculation.” Opel was nearly sold to Magna and Russian investors in the wake of GM's 2009 bankruptcy. But then-CEO Ed Whitacre and the corporate board reversed that decision, igniting controversy from German political and labor leaders who have long chafed under American oversight.