Dragster on 2040-parts.com

Brabus unveils 850-hp grocery getter

It wouldn't be the Essen Motor Show without German tuning house Brabus introducing its own versions of one or two of Mercedes-Benz cars, with borderline-unbelievable power figures. And this year the Bottrop-based outfit didn't disappoint, rolling out the Brabus 850 6.0 Biturbo based on the 2014 E63 AMG station wagon. For starters, Brabus has increased the V8 engine's displacement from 5,461cc to 5,912cc, installing custom-made forged pistons and a precision balanced billet crankshaft, and replacing the stock turbos with ones of their own design featuring larger compressor units.

Lamborghini LM00X SUV on the way?

The Lamborghini Conquisto SUV Concept (by Belgian designer David Cardoso) This is an old chestnut that crops up every month or four – Lamborghini to make new SUV – probably because Lamborghini already has an SUV in its history with the frankly other-world LMoo2. Still, with Lamborghini now very much a part of the VW Group (what happened to the revival of Auto Union as a group name?) there’s starting to be more credence to the guesswork. This time it’s Auto Express doing some guesswork (industry insider said…) and they reckon that Lamborghini are going to take the underpinnings of the Porsche Cajun (which is basically the same as the Q5), shove in the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 currently being developed jointly by Audi and Bentley and call it the Lamborghini LM00X (or LM003 or LM004 or LM005…).

Design Services: Motorcity Europe

A recent Business Week article stated that "never before has design been so vital to an auto maker's success, maybe even to its survival". Much of the reason for this is the close parity in quality between different brands and the general high quality of new cars; according to J.D. Power, vehicle quality has improved 24% in the past five years.