Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Who's Where: Wolfgang Egger to head Audi Group Design

Following fast on the heels of the appointment of Walter de'Silva as Volkswagen Group Head of Design earlier this month, is the appointment of Wolfgang Egger to head of Audi Group Design. Egger will begin his new position effective from 1 May, 2007. Stefan Sielaff remains head of the Audi brand design department.

Hyundai PassoCorto coming to Geneva

Hot on the tailpipes of the Kia GT4 Stinger's debut in Detroit comes word of an even racier-looking two-seater from parent company Hyundai – the PassoCorto. Built by and for Gen Y car enthusiasts, the PassoCorto was styled by 16 students in the Master's program of transportation design at the Istituto Europeo Design (IED) in Turin. The students were tasked by Hyundai Design Center Europe with making “…the car that would be on top of their list for buying and driving.” We don't know any Gen Ys who could fork over close to $60,000 for a car, the cost of the similarly-sized Alfa 4C, but we know plenty who would like to have one.

MIT develops self-transforming materials that behave 'like robots without robots'

A cross-disciplinary research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a suite of programmable materials, including carbon fiber, printed wood grain, textile composites, rubbers and plastics, that self-transform when exposed to an external stimulus. Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, presented a TED talk on 4D printing in 2013, where he demonstrated how a flat sheet of material could effectively build itself when exposed to water, like a robot without a robot. Following positive feedback from industries including aviation, automotive and manufacturing, his lab has been working on developing materials that change according to different activation sources, including heat, light, and air pressure, in addition to water – all of which have automotive relevance.