Exclusive: Honda to Close European Design Studios

In a surprise announcement, Honda has decided to close design operations in Europe, based in Germany. The decision to shut down both the car design and motorcycle design studios of Honda R&D Europe (HRE-G) in Offenbach, near Frankfurt was taken at the end of September and came as a shock announcement to employees. It represents the latest casualty in cuts for the car design community.

Megane Renaultsport 265 Trophy grabs Nurburgring Record

Megane Renaultsport 265 Trophy and the Nurburgring crew First we get the news that Renault has pushed out a limited edition Megane Renaulsport – the Megane Renaulsport 265 Trophy with a slightly tweaked and titivated version of the Megane Renaultsport 250 – and now we get the follow-up publicity with the claim of a new Nurburgring record for the brisk Megane. This isn’t a record that’s quite as daft as some of the records that are claimed for the Nurburgring (there almost seems to be a specific category of ‘Record’ time to fit every car maker’s needs), but it does seem a bit obscure. It’s the Nurburgring record for the fastest production front wheel drive car.

2012 Focus ECOnetic & Fiesta ECOnetic now even more frugal

2012 Ford Focus ECOnetic - now even more frugal If a little fairy from the future had come back in time, even as recently as the 1990s, and told you that a family sized Ford would have 100bhp and do more than 80mpg by 2012, you’d have laughed. But laugh no more – the 2012 Ford Focus ECOnetic average 83.1mpg and emits just 89g/km. Want something even more economical and even less emitting, where you can still have grown-ups in the back?