Bikemaster Eyeball Mirror 600209 on 2040-parts.com

A tribute to Ermanno Cressoni

Last week the car design community suffered a great loss. Ermanno Cressoni or 'Arch' as many of his designers affectionately referred to him, passed away on Thursday 30th June in Milan after battling with cancer for 13 months.'Arch' was a reference in car design and his contribution to our profession was much more important than stated in the press. As Alfa Romeo Centro Stile Director he directed the Alfetta berlina, the famous chrome GTV grille from the early seventies is attributed to him, as is the Giuglietta sedan of the late seventies, the Alfa 33, the 75, and many of the racing Alfas we adore from the late 60s and early 70s.

Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing – too tight for comfort?

Is the cabin in the new Mercedes SLS too tight for comfort? We weren’t hugely enamoured by the styling in the early camouflaged shots, but we came round enough when we saw the car in the flesh and accept it as more an homage to the 300SL than a pastiche. And despite some concerns that it won’t stack up against the SLR on the road, the news that Mercedes are working on an SLS AMG Black Series should address that concern – at a price.

PPG Design Challenge

Global supplier PPG Industries presented its Design Challenge awards at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show in January. The annual automotive glass design competition called for students to design a vehicle for a 20-something male named Matt - a recent college graduate beginning his career - whose vehicle needed to be image-enhancing and reliable. Taking inspiration from golf, bamboo charcoal and catamaran boats, 26 transportation design sophomores presented concepts that demonstrated the versatility of glass in providing unique styling as well as utility, comfort and convenience.