New Gm Oem Driver / Left Rearview Mirror Glass Impala Monte Carlo on 2040-parts.com

Center stack is new high-stakes battleground; showdown with safety regulators looms

For auto suppliers and gadget companies eager to get a piece of the auto industry, the hottest chunk of vehicle real estate now is the center stack. That corridor of interior space, running from the driver's right hip up through the center of the cockpit to the bottom of the windshield, has become a California gold rush of opportunity. But it is less so for traditional suppliers of molded plastics, cables, levers, buttons and radios.

One Lap of the Web: New Transformers, home-built cars and two Mercury Marauders

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Michael Bay has been releasing the cars of “Transformers 4” for the past couple of months, and the latest one to be revealed is the Pagani Huayra (“why-ra”).

College Exhibition: Scuola Politecnica di Design Show

Masters students on the Transportation Design course at Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy have recently displayed the results of a project done in collaboration with Lamborghini. Twenty students were faced with the delicious task of reinterpreting the legendary Espada, the four-seater front-engined GT designed by Gandini under Bertone in 1968. Guided by Professor Marco Bonetto, the project spanned one year and included the active involvement of Walter De'Silva, Director of Design for Audi Brand Group (Audi, SEAT, Lamborghini), and Luc Donckerwolke, Design Director of Lamborghini.