Antenna Topper - Flaming Eyeball on 2040-parts.com

Car Designers Blackmailed

A London court has found former design student Guy Lloyd-Parker guilty of blackmailing US car designers. The London College of Fashion graduate had claimed that 95 car design sketches were stolen from him by two college lecturers in 1994, eventually resurfacing as final designs in the form of the Audi TT, BMW Z3, Mazda RX-8 and the Volvo XC90. Lloyd-Parker, having failed to successfully sue the college, began sending menacing letters to California-based Volvo Design Director Geza Loczi, former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, and ex-Mazda designer Tsutomu Matano demanding £90,000.

Porsche – the boss goes

Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking quits Well, Wendelin Wiedeking is not just any old suit, but the man credited with taking Porsche from an ailing, one-model car maker to the cash-cow it became. But Wendelin has become a victim of his own success – and the current economic woes. At any other time in the last decade, Wendelin’s plans to swallow VW would have worked.

2013 SEAT Leon price revealed: Paris 2012

SEAT has revealed prices for their version of the VW Golf – the new SEAT Leon – at the Paris Motor Show. Starts at £15,670. SEAT has been a bit more daring with their take on the new VW Golf and Audi A3 (the SEAT Leon is based on the same VW MQB platform as its Volkswagen Group siblings) with a sporty statement nose and interesting creases running down the side.