1964 Pontiac Dealer Sales Brochure Grand Prix, Bonneville, Star Chief, Catalina on 2040-parts.com

Alias announces StudioTools 12, ImageStudio 2 and Portfolio Wall 2

 Alias has announced that it will release the latest versions of its leading industrial design software Alias StudioTools 12, Alias ImageStudio 2, and Alias PortfolioWall 2 in November. The new releases are aimed at accelerating the automotive design process and improve concept design, model evaluation, design review, and production modeling. The StudioTools family, which includes DesignStudio, Studio, AutoStudio and SurfaceStudio, delivers a full digital design workflow in a single package, from 2D concept sketching to production surface modeling.

Top Gear Tonight: Burma Road Trip – yes, it’s Top Gear Christmas in March

Wet in Burma in part 1 of the Top Gear Christmas Special Top Gear tonight – episode 6 of series 21 – isn’t actually part of the regular series twenty one (that was done and dusted with last week’s Porsche 918 Spyder episode) but is the first part of a two part Christmas Special Road Trip. Yes, March is a bit late for a Christmas Special, but it’s becoming the Top Gear norm. What isn’t normal is the fact that there are no cars for Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May to drive, instead they’re all in beaten up trucks bought sight unseen from the internet for a road trip across Burma to the River Kwai.

CES: GM to open the dashboard to developers

At last year's Autoweek Design Forum, father of the iPod and Nest Labs co-founder Tony Fadell suggested that automakers concentrate on designing and building cars, leaving handset makers to handle infotainment. The latest announcements from Ford and GM -- in conjunction with the International CES -- suggest that automakers would rather treat the dashboard space as a handset. Yesterday, Dearborn, Mich., announced the Ford Developer Program, which opens up Sync to outside application development; now General Motors has announced a similar initiative.