22" Forgiato Wheels on 2040-parts.com

Winners of Australia's 2011 Target 2030 design competition revealed

The winners of the 2011 Target 2030 ‘Design the Car of the Future' competition have been announced. The Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC) presented the winners of the Australian design competition with their Target 2030 Plaque and winner's check at a presentation ceremony at the Australian International Motor Show at the Melbourne Exhibition Center. There were three categories within the competition: model-making, design and essay.

Chevrolet Volt uses parts made from oil-collecting booms

General Motors is transforming about 100 miles of boom material used to soak up oil in the Gulf of Mexico into auto parts for the Chevrolet Volt. The oil-soaked plastic material collected off the Alabama and Louisiana coasts will keep more than 100,000 pounds of waste from the nation's landfills. The project is expected to make enough plastic to supply the first-year production of Volts with plastic parts for under the hood.

Algae-powered street lights eat CO2

Algae powered street lighting (great Photoshop) A French biochemist – Pierre Calleja – has developed a street lighting system using micro algae that absorbs CO2. The need to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere is contentious - to say the least – but as long as governments use CO2 as a stick to beat motorists and empty their bank accounts it’s sensible to look at ways of ‘balancing’ the CO2 emissions of cars. French biochemist Pierre Calleja thinks he’s come up with a solution that would neutralise CO2 emissions from cars by cancelling it out with his micro-algae lighting.