Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.

OSVehicle – the flat-pack car you can build in an hour

Ever dreamt of building your own car, maybe even designing the bodywork and literally bolting it together yourself? Then the Open Source Vehicle – or OSVehicle – is here to help. This is quite literally a flat-pack car.

London Black Taxi maker Manganese Bronze in administration

Manganese Bronze – makers of the London Black Cab – has called in administrators after failing to secure funding following a TX4 recall. Manganese Bronze – makers of the iconic London Black Cab – has had a pretty torrid few years. They sold a chunk of their shares in LTI (London Taxis International) to China’s Geely after years of failure to invest in their taxis left them struggling for sales, cash and turnover.