Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer estate (2010) unveiled

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 16 June 2010 00:01 Vauxhall has slid the covers off the new Astra Sports Tourer – a mini-me, shrunken Insignia estate for less money. The two share plenty of character and were both penned under GM Europe's design boss, Mark Adams.Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer: the lowdownThe new 2010 Astra estate puts the ultimate accent on cool looks over practicality, and its vital stats suggest it's a bit of a slouch in the sofa-shifting game. The 2685mm wheelbase is identical to the hatchback's, so the boot space stands at 500 litres, only 30 litres more than the hatch with the seats up.FlexFold (optional on lower models) lets you flop each 60:40 split rear seat down at the press of a button; stow all the rear seats flat and boot space soars to a more acceptable 1550 litres.

Original 'Panthermobile' and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang replica up for auction

The rare original ‘Pink Panther' car, one of the most iconic vehicles in movie and television history, will be put up for auction for only the second time alongside a replica of the widely-recognizable Chitty Chitty Bang Bang vehicle. The one-off ‘Panthermobile' was created in 1969 for the 'Pink Panther' show, which NBC ran from 1969 until 1976. Jay Ohrberg, who is renowned for producing a number of other iconic Hollywood vehicles, created the unique vehicle, which was originally designed by Bob Resiner. Ohrberg's other creations include the Knight Rider K.I.T.T., Back To The Future's DeLorean, the 1966 Batman Batmobile, the 1989 Batman Batmobile, the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee, Starsky & Hutch's Ford Gran Torino and even the Flintstones cars.

Report: 10th annual RTT Conference

Held at the Old Congress Hall in Munich, the 10th annual RTT Conference was a showcase for Realtime Technologies AG's (RTT) visualization products. Entitled 'Sharing Visions', the event was a platform for the established supplier of virtual prototyping and virtual marketing tools to demonstrate the services it supplies to various industries, principal among which is the automotive design industry. While many of the presentations revolved around the integration of RTT's software to streamline the processes related to marketing and product development, some reflected on the software's ability to facilitate creation and gauge public perception.