G-force Gf125 Driving Suit 4125xxxrd on 2040-parts.com

Volvo plans to polish its image with styling, high-tech engines

Volvo's brand image is stuck somewhere between "premium" and "luxury," but the Swedish automaker aims to move further upscale with a fresh design language and a new generation of vehicles powered by more fuel-efficient engines. New mid-sized and large models will begin arriving in 2014 based on Volvo's lightweight SPA platform. The vehicles will use Volvo's coming generation of smaller four-cylinder engines.

Porsche engineer Rolf Frech named engineering chief at Bentley

The Porsche-ization of luxury-car maker Bentley moved another step forward on Wednesday as Rolf Frech was named as its engineering chief. Frech, who has been Porsche's director of the complete vehicle engineering group for the past decade, replaces Ulrich Eichhorn, who is set to become head of the VDA, the German auto-industry association. Eichhorn, 50, joined Bentley as engineering chief in 2003 from Volkswagen, where he had been in charge of research and development.

Ford S-MAX Vignale Concept revealed

The Ford S-Max Vignale (pictured) arrives to top the S-Max range The arrival of the Ford Mondeo Vignale Concept last year made it clear Ford were ready to do a 21st century version of the ‘Ghia’ badge engineering to create a range-topping sub-brand with the Vignale badge with all the whistles and bells on it. Today’s arrival of the Ford S-MAX Vignale Concept reinforces that conclusion. Just like the Mondeo Vignale, the S-Max Vignale comes with plenty of upmarket materials and toys, like 21″ alloys, chrome mirror caps, Vignale Grill, embossed leather with quilting, tablet docking and a Milano Grigio paint job.