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Umea Olme Spyder project

While Swedish automaker Saab was going through tumultuous times and Geely was in the process of buying Volvo from Ford, first year MA students in Transportation Design at Sweden's Umea Institute of Design were busy creating a one-off roadster for an independent car maker: the Olme Spyder. Created in collaboration with Ove Bengtsson, an engineer with a personal passion for building his own vehicles, the students were asked to design their own interpretation of a progressive and innovative roadster, developing the concept from a sketch into a full-scale model. Based on an Opel Agila donor car, the concept's 650kg steel monocoque chassis was created by Bengtsson himself to accommodate a mid-mounted engine.

Frankfurt Motor Show 2013: the top 20 cars to look forward to

The 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show will play host to a wealth of new vehicles making their world and European debuts at the German automotive expo. So, from outlandish concepts and design studies to more mainstream production-ready metal, there are plenty of vehicles to look forward to when the covers come off at Frankfurt 2013. Everything form supercars to family estates will be vying for the limelight – here are 20 of the most interesting, important, unusual and fastest cars and concepts that’ll be on show.

Fiat 500: Suspension tweak and 2-pot engine

The Fiat 500 is to get stiffer suspension and a range of 2-pot engines It’s not hard to see why the Fiat 500 has been a runaway success. It has the cute factor going on, but on the right side of pastiche; prices are much more reasonable than its rival in the ‘small car icon revisited’ stakes – the MINI, and Fiat have done a sterling job on the marketing side. And it’s not just been the tin-top, bog-standard  Fiat 500 that’s flown out of showrooms.