Lk9000k Lakewood Bellhousing Kit - Small Block Ford on 2040-parts.com

Insurance group lists its Top Safety Picks

After increasing its standards for 2011 models, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that 66 vehicles--more than double the 2010 total--rate as best in the industry at protecting passengers from front, side, rollover and rear crashes. Only 27 vehicles qualified last year after the group, funded by the insurance industry, required that vehicles pass a roof-strength test to earn a good rating, claiming that stronger roofs would reduce the risk of serious or fatal injury by 50 percent in a rollover accident. The most mentioned carmakers on the 2011 list are Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen/Audi, both with nine vehicles to get the Top Safety Pick designation.

Driven: Honda FRV

The Honda FRV is a misunderstood car. It's a European market orientated compact MPV that unusually has two rows of three seats, a configuration shared only with the earlier Fiat Multipla design. But unlike the bulbous, short, tall and deep-windowed Italian, the Honda shares almost identical dimensions to the five seat Renault Scenic that is the compact MPV market leader (the longer wheel base Scenic and other compact MPVs with three rows of seats to seat seven people is about a foot longer).

Suzuki makes final push in U.S.

Corrected: The key for Suzuki to sell more cars in the United States, apparently, is to go out of business. American Suzuki Motor Corp., the bankrupt U.S. distributor, got court permission to bring in 2,500 more cars for the U.S.