Fender: Norton Commando Mk3 850 on 2040-parts.com

Young women risking unsafe lifts

THOUSANDS of young women are risking their lives and safety by accepting lifts from drivers they don’t know or drivers who are under the influence of drink or drugs. Among young women aged 17- to 25-years old who don’t drive, it was found that 6% have accepted a lift from a stranger. That figure rises to 13% who have got into a car with a driver who has been drinking alcohol or taken drugs.

Fuel magazine films Ford designer Craig Metros in his Melbourne workshop

Australian auto culture magazine, Fuel, has created this beautiful short film, Factory 6, featuring an interview with Melbourne-based, Detroit-raised Ford Chief Designer, Craig Metros. The film explores the shared Melbourne workshop space in which Metros and five other designers work on a number of automotive and art projects in their spare time. It offers a great insight into his inspirations, his feelings on making the jump from Detroit to Melbourne and how it feels to have fulfilled a childhood dream.

Lotus not liquidating

When a storied car brand moves only 137 units in a year in the UK and 242 in the US, predictions of said marque's demise carry a certain amount of weight -- 137 is not exactly a number that makes an automaker too big to fail. When the manufacturer in question shows up on a government list of companies to be shut down, brand-enthusiast hearts get heavy; the early stages of mourning kick in. But when the company in question is Lotus, the enthusiast thinks to himself, “Eh, they've been in dire straits before.