2005 Chevy Impala Front Center Lap Seat Belt Only Gray on 2040-parts.com

Beanz Meanz More Eco-Friendly Future Fords

THE car industry is full of interesting and unusual business partnerships, but this latest tie-up between Ford and Heinz promises to be one of the more intriguing. Far from seeking to produce 57 varieties of any particular new Ford model, the two firms are exploring the use of tomato fibre to develop a sustainable composite materials for use in vehicle manufacturing. For example, boffins believe that dried tomato skins could become the wiring brackets in future Ford vehicles or the storage bin a customer uses to hold coins and other small objects.

Designers dress up Mini Cooper

Canadian design duo DSquared2 has released initial sketches of the Mini Cooper Countryman it outfitted for this year's Life Ball, which is on May 21 in Vienna, Austria. Each year, the small-car maker commissions designers to dress up a Mini to be auctioned off at the Life Ball, which donates proceeds to the fight against HIV and AIDS. The “Red Mudder,” as the car is called, is branded with a maple leaf on both doors and a DSquared2 logo on the front shield and wheels.

Fancy driving Hyundai’s Hydrogen ix35 Fuel Cell?

As part of the European Hydrogen Road Tour, Hyundai are offering members of the public the chance to drive the ix35 FCEV. As we revealed back in August, the Hyundai ix35 FCEV – Hyundai’s hydrogen-powered electric ix35 – is going in to production before the end of 2012, the first proper production fuel cell vehicle…in the world. The initial production run is small – just 1,000 cars – but Hyundai are planning to put the ix35 FCEV in to full production by 2015, by which time they’re hoping there will be a viable hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in place.