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Video: Fiat creates café racer 500 for SEMA

Fiat is preparing a café racer-style 500 for this week's SEMA show by stripping down an Abarth version to take it "down to the essence of what you need to drive a car." The café racer philosophy of ‘more speed, less comfort' was born around the 1960s British 'biker scene and while initially focussed on increasing performance, quickly developed into a culture as concered with 'the show' as 'the go'. "It takes something like this to really get noticed at SEMA," says Craig Buoncompago, Project Manager at Fiat Product Design. "The Café Racer is really going to be one special car that you guys should really come and see." The 500's roof has been chopped, while also shorn of its door handles and being fitted with hot rod billet rims.

Volkswagen E-Bugster Cabriolet: Beijing 2012

Volkswagen E-Bugster Cabriolet VW are revealing the E-Bugster Cabriolet at Beijing 2012, a drop-top version of the electric E-Bugster we saw at Detroit in January. It would be nice to think that the VW E-Bugster Cabriolet previews how the new Beetle Cabrio will look when it arrives. But it doesn’t.

Driven: Ford Flex

When Ford unveiled the Fairlane concept in 2005, the company attempted to "rewrite the people mover story", according to Group Vice President of Design and Chief Creative Officer, J Mays. The Minivan, once the symbol of suburban America, had fallen out of favor - its dowdy, "soccer mom" image eschewed in exchange for upscale, aggressive SUVs. According to Mays, the idea with the Fairlane was to "move people emotionally as well as physically", something few minivans had done before.