1987-1988 Honda Hurricane Cbr1000 Headlight on 2040-parts.com

Suzuki iV-4 concept (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

The Suzuki iV-4 – and the production-ready SUV it previews – reveal Suzuki’s plan to marry two of the most popular recent automotive trends: customisable small cars and trendy urban compact crossovers. What’s the Suzuki iV-4’s name all about? A lower case ‘i’ has become a modern naming cliché thanks to Apple, but here it stands for ‘individuality – a nod to the iV-4 concept's potential for personalisation.

Bentley future design competition held at Hongik University, South Korea

Bentley has held its first design competition in collaboration with a university outside the UK. Director of design, Luc Donckerwolke, and head of exterior and advanced design, Sangyup Lee, tasked students at Hongik University in Seoul with designing a Bentley that would be released in 2040. In addition to looking to the future, students were asked to take the Bentley 'Blue Train' as inspiration: the car driven by three-time Le Mans-winner, Woolf Barnato, who, in March 1930, bet £100 that he could drive his Bentley from Cannes in the south of France to The Conservative Club in London in the time it took the luxurious Blue Train to travel from Cannes to Calais on the English Channel.

Plans for Smart’s three-seat sports car uncovered in patent drawings

Mercedes-Benz is developing a three-seat sports car for Smart. Depicted here in a series of European patent-application sketches obtained by AutoWeek, the radical new sports car forms part of an extended range of new Smart models planned for introduction by the middle of the next decade, including a more conventional four-seater to be produced in cooperation with Renault. Mercedes-Benz is reacting to increased competition from Toyota in the form of the iQ and the impending arrival of similar urban-based offerings from premium-brand rivals Audi and BMW.