Brittain Industries Magnetic Heading. Sensor on 2040-parts.com

College Exhibition: CCS - American Iron and Steel Institute project 2006

Students from Detroit's College for Creative Studies and University of Michigan have unveiled the results of the 18th annual American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) summer automotive design internship. Three engineering students joined three transportation design students to produce concept vehicles that targeted either Generation X, Baby Boomers and the Millennial generation. The concept vehicles embody leading-edge steel technology utilizing a flexible platform.

RCA's Dale Harrow: Car design more crucial than ever

As well as serving as head of the RCA's Vehicle Design Program, Dale Harrow is also a Financial Times columnist. His latest piece suggests the car is in the process of change, and at a rate beyond that undertaken in its first century of existence. Manufacturers have 'solved' the function of the car, and as reliability is no longer a concern for the consumer, design is now crucial.

New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.