Video: Yasushi Nakamuta on Mazda 3's 'unique' design process

It may be leaden with PR-talk but this short presentation by Yasushi Nakamuta, Mazda's director of advanced design studio at the press unveiling of the new Mazda 3 in Melbourne is still worth a couple of minutes of your time. But while the 3 is undeniably attractive we can't help but feel that the 'unique' design process Nakamuta describes (which appears wholly conventional to us) has resulted in little more than a thoroughly normal product. Take a look for yourself at the video to your left.

Volvo’s new VEA family of four-cylinder engines starts production

As a result, Volvo has been planning a new range of four-cylinder engines to power their range in the future – the new Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) – and has spent the last couple of years readying their design – and their facility in Skövde – to start production. And now it’s underway. Together with Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) the new VEA engines will be a core part of every new Volvo before too long, and will replace the five and six cylinder engines Volvo currently uses and will provide more power than current six-cylinder engines with economy and emissions better than current four-cylinder engines.

Bentley designers create one-off pieces to benefit The Prince's Trust

Bentley Motors graduates are to stage an auction of handcrafted collector's items in a fundraising event for The Prince's Trust. Workers from the Tooling, Woodshop and Styling teams at the manufacturer have crafted around 20 different stylish and high-end products to auction off online in aid of the UK youth charity, which is headed by the Prince of Wales and provides practical and financial support to 14 to 30-year-olds. Display items include a chess set with pieces tooled from aluminum set on a classy veneered board and a table crafted from a polished V8 engine from the Bentley Mulsanne and a cutlery set commissioned by Robert Welch, engraved with the Bentley emblem.