2006 Volvo Ved12 Turbo on 2040-parts.com

VW group design future

By Adam Towler Motor Industry 23 June 2008 19:01 VW Group’s Design Director Walter De Silva shed light on the future direction of Volkswagen design during a lecture earlier this week at the old Fiat Lingotto factory in Turin. Extolling his own thoughts on design amid the current world – “constraints are what promotes creativity” - he described VW as being immersed in a process of defining their design language as Audi had already done to achieve the quality and diversity necessary. Audi design DNA was “understood by everyone in the company” he said, “right down to the smallest details”.

Art Center Car Classic features the world's great automobiles

It seems like we say this every year, but this year it's truly fitting: this was the best Art Center Car Classic ever. Consider that the show covered both ends of the Corvette spectrum, from Peter Brock and the rise of the original “Mitchell Corvette” -- which was right there parked on the grass -- to General Motors designer Pete Thomas and the new C7 parked not far away, with the Mako Shark and the '63 split-window Sting Ray lined up between. A couple car lengths from that was the debut of the finally finished Peter Mullin Bugatti Type 64, a spectacular re-imagining of Jean Bugatti's unfinished final car done by Art Center students and Transportation Design chair Stewart Reed.

Hennessey tunes Chevrolet SS to 1,000 hp

Forget the Camaro Z/28 for a minute: Hennessey is offering performance packages for the Chevrolet SS that boost the car from from a not-unreasonable 475 hp to the "there's-just-no-way" 1,000 hp. That's right, Hennessey Performance saw a gap in the market for rear-wheel drive domestic sedans with 1,000 hp on tap, and like any smart business, went for it. In fact, we don't know why this niche hasn't been filled until now.