1978 John Deere Spitfire Wire Harness on 2040-parts.com

McLaren F1: the inside story by Peter Stevens and Gordon Murray

For a kid who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s with those cliché supercar posters on my wall, the chance to chat to Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens for the September 2014 issue of CAR magazine was both terrifying and incredibly exciting. In the name of completeness I’ll mention that Murray was the genius behind the McLaren F1, designer Stevens a key player, but most of you won’t need to be reminded. You’ll know that Murray and Stevens, along with a small but brilliant team, created a supercar that beat Lamborghini and Ferrari and everyone else in the world.

Future products: Kia seeks lively, upscale look

Kia's redesigned Optima sedan and the Cadenza replacement for the Amanti, both due next year, reflect an emphasis on creating a livelier and more upscale look for the once-bland brand. Indeed, styling has been a crucial element of Kia's new-product push in the past 18 months. The team at Kia Design Center America near Los Angeles--part of the automaker's global design network led by onetime Audi design chief Peter Schreyer--has helped set the new styling direction.

Autodesk Automotive Days - Munich 2009

Autodesk's Automotive Days design conferences, launched in Munich in 2008, have highlighted the key growth area of digital prototyping. And at last month's conference the focus was once again broadened to include coverage of conceptual design and creative visualization (at the very beginning of the design process) and design for manufacture - at the culmination of the process. Speakers from Autodesk outlined the innovative features of their latest product suites, while keynote presentations from leading automotive designers such as Frank Stephenson of McLaren and Volvo's Rickard Franklin showed in fascinating detail how the benefits of these software systems were being maximized in busy corporate design studios.