2006 Harley-davidson Rear Fender on 2040-parts.com

Who's Where: James Hope appointed Director of Design at Chery Motors

James Hope has been appointed Corporate Director of Design at Chery Motors, the Chinese state-owned carmaker. He joins Chery from General Motors, where he held the position of Assistant Chief Designer since February 2008. Hope took up his new position on 16 January, based in Chery's Shanghai satellite studio from where he will report directly to Chen Anning, Chery's Head of Product Development.

Bentley uses 3D printing to prototype new designs [w/Video]

3D printing is changing the way the world makes things by helping people of all disciplines to enhance and refine their ideas cheaply, quickly and effectively.  Bentley is the latest carmaker to utilize the technology to fabricate and prototype different parts to see how they'll look and work on the finished design. Using 3D printers, designers can produce parts from the exterior and interior such as the grille, tires, headlamps and door handles as well as combine different types of contrasting materials, ranging from hard plastics to rubbers of different tensile strengths.  The technology allows the user to create a solid 3D object straight from a digital model by printing layers of material on top of each other. This process rapidly decreases the delivery time, as parts can be printed overnight, and allows designers to be more creative in their ideas because of the reduced cost. Bentley isn't the first carmaker to use 3D printing technology. Audi announced last year it was beginning to prototype vehicle parts using 3D printers.

BMW X1 Official pictures leak

The first official pictures of the new BMW X1 have been leaked But I think we can expect the official pictures of the X1 to be officially released any time now, as a whole raft of images has leaked out from BMW. The joys of the Interweb! The BMW X1 is actually a half-decent looking SUV/SAV.