Caterpillar 3406e on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Porsche flat-fours, hot rod artists and German car shows

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- You've heard of watching paint dry, but NHTSA has a new hobby: watching Fords rust.

Michael Mauer appointed head of design at Porsche

Porsche AG has anounced the appointment of Michael Mauer to take over as chief designer from Harm Lagaay, who will retire on July 1 after 15 years in the post. Michael Mauer, 41, studied automobile design at Pforzheim University, and started his career at Mercedes-Benz. In 1989, he was appointed design project leader for the Mercedes V Class models, and was in charge of design work for the first SLK model generation.

Winners of Kia 'My Style, My Design' Chinese design contest announced

The winners of Kia's ‘My Style, My Design' design competition have been announced at a ceremony at Beijing's Yue Art Museum. This second annual event saw the number of universities involved rise from 40 to 86 with over 500 projects submitted which the organizing committee whittled down to just 30 finalists. Shangdong Transportation College student Du Wenchang's 'Honglin' project was presented with the award for first place by Seon-Ho Youn, vice president of Kia Design Center.