Kawasaki Zrx 1200 Front Sprocket Cover Counter Shaft on 2040-parts.com

Volkswagen Beetle Dune 'could be built'

IF YOU like your Beetles with a little more ‘dune buggy’ about them, Volkswagen’s latest concept is right up your street. And what’s more, it really could be right up your street if public reaction to the so-called Beetle Dune is strong enough. With a body raised by 50mm, 19-inch wheels and a special rear-mounted luggage rack reminiscent of early Beetles, the Dune plays on its dual heritage strands of its earliest predecessor and the fully off-road biased dune buggies built on Beetle chassis.

Honda NSX concept unveiled at 2012 Detroit auto show

One of the biggest draws of the 2012 Detroit auto show is the new Honda NSX concept car. Developed in tandem by Honda's design studios in California and Japan, the new NSX is a svelte-looking supercar with an exciting purpose: it heralds Honda's new supercar. After years of will-they, won't-they delays, concepts and U-turns, this time Honda is adamant - it really is replacing the original NSX.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.