1959 Chev. Steering Wheel Bezel on 2040-parts.com

Top international design talent to descend on Czech Republic for AutoDesign Prague 2013

The automotive design industry will head to Prague on 26 September to speak at the AutoDesign Prague 2013 conference at the National Technical Library. Now entering its third year, the one-day conference – organized by AutoDesign and Styling magazine – will be followed by a workshop the next day, which will focus on techniques including sketching and clay and 3D modeling. The speakers and presentation topics haven't been announced yet but last year's conference featured speakers such as Dassault Systèmes' vice president Design Experience Anne Asensio, while the 2011 edition saw presentations by speakers including Fabio Filippini, Pininfarina's vice president design and chief creative officer, and Peter Horbury, then-vice president of design at Volvo.

Saab sold to Spyker

General Motors' Saab division won't end up on the postbankruptcy scrap heap with Pontiac and Saturn. Just as Saab's death appeared imminent, the Swedish automaker was scooped up on Tuesday by Dutch supercar-maker Spyker Cars in a $74 million deal that has been in works for months. The deal is expected to close on Feb.

McLaren plan to make windscreen wipers obsolete

McLaren plan to make windscreen wipers obsolete Much of the ‘clunkiness’ in cars – stuff like wind-up windows and a cranking handle – have been made obsolete in cars as technology arrived to make things work better, but one thing that remains on modern cars from the dawn of the motoring age is the windscreen wiper. Invented by Mary Anderson in 1903 after she realised drivers of the first motor cars were having to lean out of the window in rainy conditions to see where they were going, it became a standard fitting on all cars within a few years. Windscreen wipers have certainly improved over the years as technology has developed, but they’re still basically a strip of rubber moving across the windscreen to clear rain.