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Autos to overtake manuals

By Jack Carfrae Motor Industry 28 February 2007 07:39 Automatic transmissions will finally overtake manuals as the top-selling gearbox choice in 2007. Autos have been long established as the more popular option Stateside and in Japan, but it seems that Europe has now finally caught the two-pedal bug. With the ever-increasing popularity of semi-automatic gearboxes (Tiptronic, DSG, CVT and a whole flood of other acronyms), it isn’t hard to see why.

College Exhibition: Royal College of Art Vehicle Design students prepare for the The Show 2004

June 16, 2004 - Final year students at London's Royal College of Art postgraduate Vehicle Design course are preparing for their annual degree show. The design concepts exhibited by the 17 graduating students explore themes for future mobility, including: A public bike using new plastic forming technologies, a three-wheeled motorcycle for Aprilia, and a mobile living space that solves the probems of commuting by moving the home close to the workplace. Heung Soo Kim's coupe concept explores 'light as communication', with intuitive gestural driver controls, simplified instrumentation using color-coded indicators and exterior lamp elements embedded within the vehicle's glass surfaces.

MINI E – be a UK tester

MINI are looking for field testers in the UK to trial the MINI E But don’t think it will be a freebie. It may be far more advantageous to MINI than the Test Driver, but MINI are charging around $850 a month in the US for the privilege of testing the MINI E so, although MINI hasn’t released details of cost in the UK, you can bet it will be a similar amount. Still, people like to feel special, and an electric MINI is something ground-breaking.