4pcs Mobis Car Truck Front Rear Door Edge Guard Guards Bumper Protector Blue on 2040-parts.com

Essay: Variable Degrees of Translucency

Car door panels and fenders are generally made of steel, sometimes of aluminum or plastic composites, and you can't see through them. Car windows, on the other hand, are made of a transparent sandwich of glass and plastic - and you can see through them. But in the future there will be variable degrees of transparency: translucent elements where once there were none, traditional window areas that will have opaque elements and graduated progressions from opaque to see-through.

Toyota shelves A-BAT pickup concept

Toyota won't build the small, ultramodern A-BAT hybrid pickup concept that was a head-turner at the 2008 Detroit auto show and looked like a good bet for production. "We have a lot of top priorities, and A-BAT is not one of them right now," Bob Carter, Toyota Division's general manager, told the Web site PickupTrucks.com. "It's on the shelf." A Toyota official confirmed Carter's comments.

Historic Brough Superior hits the auction block

Motorcycle pioneer and racer George Brough's 1925 prototype Brough Superior SS 100 Alpine Grand Sport has a shot at breaking the world record for motorcycles at auction on Dec. 15. The iconic piece from the Michael FitzSimons collection could fetch $600,000 to $700,000 at the New York auction house Phillips de Pury & Co.