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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 ActiveE – the BMW 1-Series Electric – at Detroit

BMW has reveled the BMW Concept ActiveE at the Detroit Motor Show BMW obviously think there’s room for more than just the MINI E to be punted round the roads by Joe Public to shake out all the wrinkles in their electric car gubbins as they’ve brought along the BMW ActiveE Concept to the Detroit Motor Show – basically an electric BMW 1 Series – which we first reported on back in December. The ActiveE Concept gets a rear mounted electric motor that divvies up 170bhp. Unlike the MINI E BMW has managed to stick the batteries under the car instead of ripping out the back seats to store them.

Lime Rock on track for Labor Day vintage festival

Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park doesn’t claim to have the biggest combination Concours d’Elegance and historic racing weekend in the United States, but it does have something that the recently concluded Pebble Beach and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion can’t match: All the action takes place in the same venue. And as any veteran of the annual traffic-clogged Monterey Peninsula extravaganza can attest, that’s a definite plus. But Historic Festival 30 presented by Jaguar isn’t just about convenience.