1952 To 1953 Ford Car & Truck 215 Cu .in. Standard Piston Rings on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes-Benz prototypes spotted

Modern technology makes it harder for automakers to hide their upcoming products from prying eyes. Take, for example, these images sent to us from Autoweek subscriber Jonathan Peters while he was in Utah. Peters speculates that what he saw was a gathering of a varied Mercedes-Benz cars being tested, along with cars from other carmakers for comparisons.

According to Bob: How GM cars got better

Even before he rode into General Motors as the product-development savior in 2001, Bob Lutz found himself being recruited for plots to take over the company. There was Heinz Prechter, the ASC sunroof king who proposed that Lutz and ex-Chrysler executive Steve Miller join with him as a pre-assembled management team to buy shares and get the board to clean out management. There was J.T.

Volvo picks up Red Dot Design Award for new connectivity system

Volvo's Sensus Connected Touch connectivity system with the world's first voice-activated integrated Spotify connection has been awarded a 2013 Red Dot Design Award. The Sensus Connected Touch accessory turns the integrated 7-inch display into an infrared, beam-scanned touch screen that can be used even when wearing gloves. The system can be controlled using the touchscreen, the steering wheel or the center stack, while you can also voice-activate all music sources. Alain Visser, senior vice president of marketing, sales and customer service at Volvo, says, "The Red Dot Design Award confirms that this approach to an intuitive, human-centric user experience fulfils modern car owners' desire to remain constantly connected also when driving." The WiFi connection can be made using either a car-mounted 3G/4G-dongle or the driver's mobile phone, and the data is transferred by the WiFi between the phone and the Sensus Connected Touch.