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New Vauxhall Astra Roadster preview

Rendering of the Vauxhall Astra Roadster With the new Vauxhall Astra starting to be pushed by Vauxhall ahead of its official launch at Frankfurt in September, thoughts are now turning to what derivatives of the new Astra are to come. Vauxhall are already committed to the three door hatchback and the estate as the follow up after the launch, but an obvious contender is an open-topped Astra. And if these renderings are to be believed it will be a bit of a show-stopper.

Caterham sells F1 team

Caterham The Caterham Formula 1 team has been sold to a consortium of Swiss and Middle-Eastern investors following a poor season so far in 2014. Rumours that Caterham would cut its losses have been rife, since team founder Tony Fernandes threatened to quit if things didn't improve this year. The team is currently bottom in the championship and Fernandes hinted of an exit last week, when he tweeted “F1 hasn't worked, but love Caterham Cars.” Graham Macdonald, Caterham Group CEO: “Firstly I want to thank everyone who was involved in the F1 team for all their hard work and dedication since the team’s first days in 2009.

Video: Chris Bangle delivers “Empowerment: Design without Designers” talk at Creative Mornings/London

Chris Bangle – the undisputed front man of car design – needs little introduction, so the prospect of the former BMW Design Director and now founder of Chris Bangle Associates giving a talk in our home town of London was too good to pass up. His presentation (which you can watch in full in the video to the left) touched on his time at BMW, but was more focused on the idea of empowering others to create: "design without you in the middle", as Bangle says. From the story of the co-creation of the staircase in his Italian studio to the idea of encouraging people to think about their culture when designing, his philosophies transcend disciplines.