Alfa Romeo Spider 1980 81 Spica Injected Factory Tool Oe Nos on 2040-parts.com

Entries in for 2012 LA Design Challenge

Final designs for the 2025 Highway Patrol Vehicle from worldwide design studios are in for the Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge. Design studios from BMW DesignWorksUSA, General Motors, Honda North America, Honda Japan, Mercedes-Benz and Subaru are fighting it out to be honored in the annual contest by showcasing their creativity and talent. This year's Design Challenge asked automotive design studios to create a highway patrol vehicle for 2025 that tackled the ‘protect and serve' aspect while considering emissions, population growth and transportation infrastructure.

Tour de France improve cycle safety

THE TOUR DE FRANCE, which starts in Yorkshire for the 2014 race, has helped increase cycle safety awareness by 90%. Cyclists report car drivers are being more patient and giving them more space on the road in the build-up to the biggest cycling race in the world. A survey by ColinAppleyard.com found 90% of drivers say they are more of cyclist because of Le Tour, while 73% of drivers said they are now more careful around cyclists.The arrival of the Tour de France has also made 10% of drivers consider buying a bike.

Early cars, fashion on display at the Petersen

Automotivated, a new exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, traces the evolution of clothes worn in cars--from the bulky circus-tent stuff people had to wear to keep from freezing to death in the jangly, open-topped conveyances of 100 years ago, up to the height of the European Concours in the 1920s and '30s, when what you and your date wore was just as important to winning best of show as the styling of your Delahaye/Delage/Talbot Lago. “In the earliest days of the automobile, you were sitting on the car, you weren't sitting in it,” said Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen. So the first section of the exhibit shows people (mannequins dressed as people) in heavy, practical overcoats, scarves and goggles.