2001 Four Winns Hprizon 230 Cockpit 1/4"6mm Eva Foam Faux Mat Floor on 2040-parts.com

£10 million cash boost for Lotus

Business secretary Vince Cable has visited Lotus’ Norfolk headquarters today, where he announced the company would be awarded £10.44 million from the Regional Growth Fund. The money will be used for research and development of products, as well as staff training. The sports car company expects to create 313 full time jobs to support production over the coming years.

Audi Q5 concept is killer

Audi has provided the strongest hint yet that it plans to crown its Q5 lineup with an RS model by revealing a one-off, 408-hp, supercharged 3.0-liter V6 concept version of its compact SUV. The vehicle’s public premiere comes this weekend at the annual Woerthersee meet in Austria. Although Audi officials are playing down the importance of the custom concept, insiders have told AutoWeek that it was constructed to provide customer feedback on a possible performance-oriented version of the Q5, the likes of which would almost certainly form part of the company’s future North American lineup.

Michelin design contest inspires young minds

The College for Creative Studies in Detroit held its 24th Michelin Design challenge, in which Michelin sponsors a design and development project for one of CCS' transportation design classes. The competition works like this: CCS and Michelin get together to develop a theme, then CCS picks which transportation design class will work on the project. The idea, Michelin says, is to celebrate and promote the kind of vehicle design that highlights original thinking and innovation.