Shifter Kart Pipe Cradle Hegar #5615 on 2040-parts.com

Bedford Autodrome to get Ariel Atoms for 2012

Corporate track-days at the Bedford Autodrome will get lairier in 2012 - Somerset-based Ariel has announced it’ll supply ten cars for the PalmerSport track-day events next year. Stopping short of the unhinged Atom V8, the PalmerSport-spec cars get the normally aspirated 245bhp Civic Type-R engine, and some key changes to set it aside from the Joe-Public Atom. The Palmer-spec car will get a Sadev paddle-shift sequential gearbox, which swaps ratios in 60 milliseconds, whilst some choice chassis mods optimise the Atom for its full-time track-toy brief.

McLaren F1 to buy BMW F1 Engine ops

McLaren could be about to buy up BMW's F1 engine operations BMW are quitting F1 at the end of this season, and the Sauber team is up for sale. But the engine operations are not part of the deal. So it’s starting to look as if McLaren are looking to buy up the engine side from BMW and become a completely independent F1 car builder – just like Ferrari.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars: The Japanese push

Honda Clarity Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car - already in the real world at $600 a month We make no secret of the fact that we consider Hybrid cars a stop-gap solution to reducing reliance on oil. And frankly, unless you drive like a saint you’ll probably find you get inferior performance and poorer fuel consumption out of regular hybrids than you would from a decent eco-diesel. Only when you start to put complex hybrid systems in high-end cars do you start to come up with something that does mitigate fuel use and improve performance.