20" X 10" & 20" X 8.5" Ruff Racing R942 Chrome W/ Black Staggered Wheels Rims on 2040-parts.com

Fioravanti expands into China in partnership with Eastone

Renowned Italian design house Fioravanti has formed a partnership with Shanghai-based design and engineering consultancy Eastone. The aim of this powerful duo is to deliver a wide range of design and build services directly to Chinese OEMs, with the first fruit of their labors being a concept car for Chinese manufacturer BAIC, to be unveiled at the Beijing auto show. For the first time in their own country, Chinese OEMs can now benefit from the time-served capabilities, knowledge and car culture typical of a leading Italian design house, while simultaneously gaining from the local knowledge, strong relationships and powerful commercial strength of a domestic design company.

Pininfarina Sintesi

By Guy Bird Motor Shows 10 March 2008 12:03 What’s new on Pininfarina’s Geneva Motor Show stand? Italian coachbuilder and design house Pininfarina showed another stunning concept at Geneva to follow the 2005 Maserati Birdcage and 2004 Nido. The 2008 Sintesi is strictly an ‘ideas concept’ imagining a future vehicle that can communicate with other cars to avoid traffic and accidents and thus reduce the need for current passive safety requirements – like longer and heavier front noses to meet pedestrian impact laws.

Audi A3 Sportback e-tron price and specs – costs £34,950

Audi A3 Sportback e-tron (pictured) costs £34,950 If governments are going to base car taxation on Co2 emissions, then car makers are going to build cars that ‘game’ the official tests. A perfect example of which is the new Audi A3 Sportback e-tron plug-in hybrid. It’s expensive at £34,950 (although the government bribe for plug-ins does drop the price you pay to £29,950), but thanks to its ‘up to 31 miles’ range on battery power only it comes complete with official economy of 176.6 mpg and emissions of 37g/km.