Vintage Navigator Compass Taylor Instrument Co. #2980 Boat/car/truck In Box on 2040-parts.com

Project Car Hell: BMW-powered Opel Olympia vs. Aston-equipped Singer Nine

Editor's note: When you can't fit your newly acquired basket-case Jeep FC150 in the garage because you have an Autocar Sussita and a 1928 Studebaker President chassis buried beneath crates of Subaru 360 parts, you're in Project Car Hell. Our friend Murilee Martin is here to oil up the gates to Automotive Hades, bringing the series back with a couple of you'd-hafta-be-outta-your-mind hypothetical engine-swap projects. And be sure to check back for fresh installments of Project Car Hell every week.

Ford Fiesta ST concept (2011) at the Frankfurt motor show

This is the new Ford Fiesta ST, just unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show. It’s just a concet car for now, but we know a production version of the new Ford Fiesta ST will be revealed at the 2012 Geneva motor show, and that sales will start in the UK in time for next September’s plate change. It’s the same format Ford followed with the Focus ST, revealing a near-production concept at the 2010 Paris motor show, and then pulling the wraps off the real thing last night.

BMW's N20 engine--four cylinders, more power

More power, greater torque, reduced fuel consumption, lower tailpipe emissions and less weight--but better? Before driving the BMW X1 xDrive28i, the first model to feature the German carmaker's new turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, we weren't so sure. The new engine, known as the N20 and set to lead a return of four-cylinder BMW models to North America for the first time since 1998, has been conceived to (indirectly) replace the company's long-running naturally aspirated 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder.