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

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.

Changes Coming to the Petersen?

If the idea was to get everyone talking about it, then the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has succeeded. The Petersen, one of the greatest automotive institutions in the country, is anonymously selling 64 of its cars at a relatively low-key auction, leaving 300 behind in its Wilshire Blvd. home.

Nissan NV2500 concept

Nissan North America today unveiled the NV2500 concept at its Technical Center headquarters in Michigan. The van concept provides a preview of Nissan's entry into the North American commercial market in 2010. "The Nissan NV2500 is a rolling idea lab - bringing a new perspective to the commercial vehicle segment," said Bruce Campbell, vice president of design for Nissan Design America, which developed the concept.