07 08 Element Speedometer Instrument Cluster Dash Panel Gauges 162,784 on 2040-parts.com

Fiat 500 Cabrio hits the US

The Fiat 500 Cabrio hits the US for Spring Actually, we’re not completely convinced that the Fiat 500 cabrio (that’s Fiat 500 Convertible for those of us on the old continent who prefer real words)  has hit the US. Because although Fiat has told us the 500 Cabrio hits the US ‘Just in time for spring’, it doesn’t say when US customers will start to get cars. Which may be a bit nit-picking, but there doesn’t seem much point saying it’s hitting in time for Spring when Spring’s a third done and there’s still no date.

Ariel moves from Atoms to motorbikes in 2012

Ariel - famous to motorists for its skeletal Atom sports car - will start making motorbikes again in 2012. CAR's sister publication biking bible MCN today publishes the full story of the new Ariel superbike, likely to be priced around £20,000. Owner Simon Saunders told MCN Ariel would build the new bikes in the UK, but they would use Honda engines like the Atom sports car.

Car Designers Blackmailed

A London court has found former design student Guy Lloyd-Parker guilty of blackmailing US car designers. The London College of Fashion graduate had claimed that 95 car design sketches were stolen from him by two college lecturers in 1994, eventually resurfacing as final designs in the form of the Audi TT, BMW Z3, Mazda RX-8 and the Volvo XC90. Lloyd-Parker, having failed to successfully sue the college, began sending menacing letters to California-based Volvo Design Director Geza Loczi, former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, and ex-Mazda designer Tsutomu Matano demanding £90,000.