1985 Indy 500 Pace Car Oldsmobile Calais 500 Car Club Jacket Hat Patch Crest on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes SLA Roadster looks likely

As car manufacturers start to look with fresh eyes at smaller, cheaper cars, reports from Germany confirm that Mercedes is close to committing to the SLA, a small Roadster to be based on the next generation A-Class platform. The original SLA concept was shown at Detroit in 2000, and aimed to slot in beneath the SLK. But at that time Mercedes didn’t have a suitable platform on which to base the car, and the project was shelved.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution not dead, yet

Perhaps as a reward to the public for buying its Mirage,* Mitsubishi has disclosed that it will not, in fact, kill off the gravel road-loving Lancer Evolution as soon as we thought. According to Mitsubishi, the Lancer Evolution will -- at the very least -- live out the 2015 model year, with North American-spec cars going into production this July. We're fairly sure it's not going to be a hybrid, either.

Local Motors 'Design Our Car' competition opens

Local Motors has opened its first-ever ‘Design Our Car' competition, which encourages collaboration within the manufacturing community. The open-source automaker is providing two of its Rally Fighter cars, one of which will be built at the company's micro-factory in Arizona while the other will be built live in the Emerging Technology Center at September's International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. Ideas from the design and engineering community are being sought to help design and select a skin for the Rally Fighter that will be built by the Local Motors team this spring.