Abrasives Sunmight Sun53007 on 2040-parts.com

Top student technicians compete for $12 million in scholarships

Jimbo Paranada and Marc Paguirigan wore their leis made of lucky Hawaiian ti leaves, but it wasn't quite enough to give the Maui High School students the win in the 62nd-annual Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills national competition on June 14 at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. The Hawaiian duo finished second to the two-person team of Matthew Saunders and Drew Torrey from Vale High School in Vale, Ore. The Oregon pair won the title of "America's Best Student Auto Technicians," outscoring at field of state champions from all 50 states.

Parents 'risking kids' lives' on defective tyres

MORE THAN 30% of parents are ferrying their most precious cargo around on illegal tyres, a new study has found. Road safety charity TyreSafe has reported that one of its members carried out a study at a Shropshire primary school, where almost a third of the cars dropping children off at school were wearing tyres that were either past their wear markers, were incorrectly inflated, had bulges or cuts, or had foreign objects sticking out of them. “The start of the new academic year means that we will be experiencing many more cars on the roads, particularly at peak times of the day,” comments Stuart Jackson, chairman, TyreSafe.

Exclusive: Pierre Castinel resigns from Head of Design role at Tata

Tata's Head of Design, Pierre Castinel, has resigned from his post to accept a position at PSA, Car Design News has learned. Castinel was originally hired to develop the design direction and form a brand identity for Tata's full line of vehicles, including cars, pickups, SUVs, MPVs, trucks and buses, but things haven't been going well at the Indian automaker. According to insiders, Tata closed Castinel's design studio in the British midlands last year, forcing the UK-based team to move into the automaker's engineering center in Warwickshire.