Video: A look inside CATLY's studio walls and Toyota FT-1 concept development

Motor Trend has taken a look inside the studio walls of CALTY to produce a documentary of the design development of a star of last week's Detroit auto show, the Toyota FT-1 concept. Toyota's Californian design studio has been responsible for some of the company's best recent work including the Lexus LF-LC concept. In this episode of Downshift, Motor Trend spoke to some of those behind the FT-1's design – Kevin Hunter, CALTY Research president, studio chief designer Alex Shen and William Chergosky, interior chief designer.

Has the McLaren P1 lapped the Nurburgring in a record 6 minutes 47 seconds?

Has the McLaren P1 lapped the Nurburgring in a record 6 minutes 47 seconds? We knew McLaren were back at the Nurburgring with the P1 in an attempt to make good on Ron Dennis’s promise that the P1 would lap the ‘Ring in under 7 minutes. It appears McLaren has already tried to set a sub-7 minute time with the P1 but could only manage 7:04s so, with the firts P1s now in customer hands – and full performance specs revealed – the final piece of the jigsaw (apart form a Top Gear lap record) is to set a great time at the Nurburgring.

Webinars: Designing next-gen automotive interiors with LEDs

CDN's second webinar 'Visualization, Illumination and Sensing: Designing Next Generation Automotive Interiors with LEDs' was presented by Osram Opto Semiconductors on 17 February, 2010. View the recorded webinar in our archive by clicking the above link or find out more in the original article below.   Lighting has been revolutionized by the LED – their small size and low energy consumption gives designers a whole new palette of light and colors not previously possible. They are design elements in themselves, and they allow the ambience of an interior to fuse customization with sensing technology.