Oil Pan (engine) Skyward Automotive Sk264410 on 2040-parts.com

MINI Cooper S & MINI JCW UK Recall

MINI JCW & Cooper S recalled Following on from the US MINI Recall, MINI UK is to recall 29,000 MINI Cooper S and MINI JCW models to fix a faulty circuit board. Yesterday we reported that MINI in the US is to recall 89,000 MINI Coopers to fix a faulty circuit board on the turbo’s auxiliary water pump, and we now learn the recall will be worldwide – although is DOESN’T include the MINI Cooper. It seems the US authorities got it all in a bit of a muddle and included the MINI Cooper in the recall announcement, even though it doesn’t have a turbo and the recall relates to a potentially faulty circuit board on the auxiliary water pumps that cool the turbos.

The Harewood Hillclimb in a Subaru BRZ

The past weekend, the Harewood Speed Hillclimb in Yorkshire, England, celebrated its Golden Jubilee. For 50 years, vehicles have been making the run up a narrow, twisting paved lane on a stretch of rolling farmland near Leeds, trying to beat the clock. The route, of about 1,600 yards, at one stretch passes between two barns on the property.

Audi rolls out A3 lineup at the Los Angeles auto show

There's something about German automakers and model proliferation—it seems that if there is a niche to be filled, no matter how vanishingly small, a vehicle will be devised to fill it. If no niche is extant, they'll simply invent one, which is how we wound up with the unprompted X6. Audi's new A3 lineup, which debuted at the Los Angeles auto show and will begin its 18 month-long North American rollout spring 2014, seems incredibly rational by comparison.