1984-1996 Corvette Rear Suspension Spring Mount Brackets on 2040-parts.com

The Extreme Mini Adventure Money Can’t Buy

IT’S NOT every day as an apprentice you get to build a new concept car for your employer. However that’s exactly what a lucky few trainees did when BMW tasked them to make their design study a reality. Choosing the firm’s Mini Paceman as the donor car, the talented apprentices transformed the vehicle into a rugged two-door pick-up – a long way from the original motor’s sleek coupe origins.

Daimler and Renault-Nissan strike a global partnership

Daimler today struck a wide-ranging partnership with the Renault-Nissan alliance, in a deal that will usher in new jointly developed cars, shared technologies and a multitude of cost savings.  Cars such as the new 2014 Smart Fortwo will now be twinned with the next Renault Twingo, while the Forfour is set for a comeback and we can expect plenty of shared combustion engines and electric motors, borrowed platforms and jointly developed SUV tech across all three parties. And that's only scratching the surface of the possibilities opened up by this wide-ranging deal.

Volvo uses Facebook to research new interior solutions

Volvo is using Facebook to conduct market research into how drivers use their cars' interiors via its new 'You Inside' app. Users are asked to create a personal profile that includes the car they drive, their lifestyle and a list of day-to-day items they keep inside their car. The aim is to identify new design solutions based around qualitative data.