55,56,57 Chevy Nomad Upper Left Beltline At Sliding Window on 2040-parts.com

Chris Bangle Associates announces 'Illustrate the Future' design competition

Chris Bangle Associates has announced a new design contest called 'Illustrate the Future.' The competition is open to all design students across all design disciplines and coincides with the launch of Managing Director, Chris Bangle's new book. "I have written a fiction book about Car Design and the prologue takes place 25 years in the future," says Bangle. "It contains some concepts I have been working on, and this contest is to see what YOU would make of them." Bangle's novel explores the state of affairs in the car design field and also expresses his concerns about the culture future generations of designers will inherit.

Battery breakthrough set to accelerate electric-car development

A team of scientists working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are claiming a significant breakthrough in recharging times for lithium-ion batteries. According to findings published in the scientific journal Nature, MIT researchers Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder have unlocked the potential of lithium-ion batteries by patenting a unique process which is claimed to allow a typical laptop power pack to be fully recharged in less than a minute--an improvement in recharging performance of roughly 90 percent over existing lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries generate electric current via the flow of lithium ions across an electrolyte, from an electrode to a cathode.

2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe review notes

EXECUTIVE EDITOR BOB GRITZINGER: Just when all the auto pundits thought the big-honkin' all-wheel-drive full-size (at least for Mini) Countryman was the first sign of Mini's impending demise, along comes the apocalypse, otherwise known as the Cooper Coupe. Though people of all ages venture that it “looks cool” or “interesting” or “fun,” none of them have had to drive it or live with it. Let's get out of the way that it can be as fun to drive as a Mini Cooper S, but it's not an improvement over the larger, more functional, more sanely styled model.