55351114ae Shaft-intermediate (chrysler) on 2040-parts.com

Ford truck-design boss leaves for job outside the industry

Pat Schiavone, Ford Motor Co.'s truck design chief, is leaving the company for a job outside the industry. Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans on Monday confirmed Schiavone's resignation, effective Jan. 4.

One Lap of the Web: Let's visit Amelia Island in a short bus camper

-- Ken Kesey and friends spent most of the countercultural 1960s driving across the country in a 1939 International Harvester school bus painted in psychedelic colors. Portland, Maine architect Will Winkelman might do less drugs (we don't know), but the 1959 Chevrolet Viking short bus he designed might fit Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, especially if you stacked them head-to-toe. For his client, Winkelman designed a Moroccan theme of colorful patterns and textures across the curtains and twin beds, beaded light fixtures and wood paneling everywhere, approaching the project as one might approach boat-building or a particularly run-down Detroit "fixer-upper." The result has plumbing, power, an olive-drab paint scheme that blends into the New England woods, and the overall sense of a guest bedroom that you can escape in whenever you tire of your host's company.

Audi preps S3 Cabriolet for Geneva

Audi revealed the S3 Cabriolet on Wednesday, before its Geneva motor show debut. The go-fast version of the small A3 Cab shares the same widespread MQB architecture as the rest of the 3 range, but it gets a hotter engine, a lower stance and, of course, a rag top. It’ll arrive in Germany this summer, and possibly here sometime after the S3 sedan in early 2015.