Chevy Park Brake on 2040-parts.com

An Audience with Syd Mead at CCS

"Visual futurist and concept artist." Like some sort of Transformer, those words combine to create an ideal job description for many an industrial designer. With the world of design becoming more varied, and our jobs becoming more demanding of diversity, it's no surprise that many of us venture into adjacent professions. Industrial Design has adapted especially well recently to Hollywood, bringing our experience to recent films like Avatar and Prometheus, but the trend actually goes back several decades.

Nissan BladeGlider EV, IDx Freeflow and IDx Nismo at Tokyo Motor Show 2013

Not content with unveiling the Nismo version of its GT-R supercar at the Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan also showed three new concepts covering motorsport style, modern design and their latest dramatic electric vehicle thinking. Time to meet the triangular-shaped, three-seat BladeGlider EV, the denim-seated IDx Freeflow and the stylishly go-faster IDx Nismo. Remember a black Nissan motorsport creation called the DeltaWing that graced the 2012 Le Mans 24?

GM wants to wrap up Opel sale quickly

General Motors is anxious to wrap up the sale of Opel, a top executive said Tuesday. The bidding has been narrowed to Canadian auto parts conglomerate Magna--which is favored by the German government--and Belgian investors RHJ International. "I think everyone is anxious to get this thing done," GM CFO Ray Young said, according to Automotive News.