Chris Craft Post-war Stern Pole Vent on 2040-parts.com

Whos Where: Ford of Europe reshapes their design department

It was only to be expected that some of the brightest creative forces should follow Martin Smith who joined Ford of Europe from his position as GM Europe Design Director in August this year. Stefan Lamm was a studio chief designer at Opel - he was recently confirmed as Chief Designer Exteriors at Ford. At the same time two new appointments were announced alongside an interesting restructuring of Ford of Europe's design department.

U.S. seeks 5 percent annual fuel-economy gains through 2016

The Obama administration today proposed gasoline mileage and greenhouse-gas pollution standards for new vehicles for model years 2012 to 2015, filling in the blanks for manufacturers en route to a 35.5 mpg national target in 2016. The Transportation Department and EPA proposal calls for fuel economy to increase by about 5 percent each year, starting from an average of 27.3 mpg for the 2011 model year, the agencies said in a statement. The average car buyer would save more than $3,000 in fuel costs over the life of a vehicle, the statement said.

Mercedes SLK (2011): new roadster revealed

This is the new Mercedes SLK, the third-generation version of Merc’s folding metal roof-equipped roadster. Rather than forcing the new Mercedes SLK to share the limelight with the facelifted C-class at the 2011 Detroit motor show, Merc has revealed the all-new SLK a few days after this year’s NAIAS started. Let’s start with the looks, and this latest SLK has adopted the latest Mercedes DNA from the CLS and SLS.