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Brazilian students develop soapbox racers for Volkswagen

Brazilian design students have competed for year-long internships at Volkswagen's Brazilian design studio by designing – and racing – soapbox cars. Established 15 years ago by Volkswagen South America design director Luiz Veiga, the Volkswagen Design Talent Contest refreshed its format for 2013 by challenging students to develop a prototype for a gravity-powered soapbox racer instead of asking for sketch and render-based proposals. According to Veiga, Volkswagen was looking for someone "capable of working away from the desk and able to create design solutions, assess and build them".

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.

Mitsubishi Compact Crossover (2010) first sketch

This sketch reveals Mitsubishi’s new compact SUV. The official name is still under wraps for now, so Mitsubishi calls this car its Compact Crossover. European sales start next summer, and it’ll be the first car to receive the company’s new clean-diesel engine.