Airhead Ahsg-1001 Slider 1 Person Inflatable on 2040-parts.com

Driven: Volkswagen Passat CC GT

Elegant and refined. Forty years ago these two words would not have been used to describe the Beetles bought in droves by the counterculture in the US; a symbol of the hippy movement and the definitive people's car, designed at a time when Germany sought to put people in motion. With the Passat CC, however, Volkswagen is indeed making a sharp move away from the ‘volks wagen', and these two words rolled off the tongues of those who saw the car in all three countries we drove through on our winter holiday.

Renault TwinRun hot hatch concept (2013) first official pictures

Renault will show off this mid-engined supermini concept at the 2013 Monaco Grand prix race weekend. Called the TwinRun, the R5 Turbo-inspired creation is powered by a mid-mounted 3.5-litre V6, and will hit 155mph flat out. The TwinRun is the latest in a series of wacky Renault concept cars, following the Twizy RS F1 and Twin-Z supermini into the limelight.

AutoWeek office swag: Mazda rotary-engine keychain with realistic motion

When I got the keys to our long-term 2011 Mazda 5 last week, they came with a surprise--this aluminum-and-brass keychain in the shape of a rotary-engine housing, complete with moving rotor. The rotor doesn't just rattle around or spin in a circle. Thanks to a thumbwheel on the back of the housing, coupled with a timing gear and offset crank journal, the thing actually moves in an approximation of epitrochoidal motion just like a real Wankel.