1970 Suzuki Tc 90 Blazer Oem Chain Guard/guide on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes-Benz A-class patent renderings leaked

Mercedes-Benz unveiled a three-door concept version of its 2012 A-class at the New York and Shanghai auto shows in April, and images of a possible production model leaked this week via the European Patent Office. The renderings show a five-door hatchback version of the A-class concept with less aggressive styling. Its world premiere is said to be scheduled for the Frankfurt motor show in September.

Paul McCartney’s Aston Martin DB5 sells for £307,000

An Aston Martin DB5 first owned by the Beatle’s Paul McCartney sold at RM Auctions last night for £307,000. But if there’s a UK ‘franchise’ that’s bigger even than Bond, it’s the Beatles. And Bond and the Beatles came together last night at R.M.

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.