Harley Davidson Fxdl Dyna Low Rider - Concord Purple Pearl Tin Paint Set on 2040-parts.com

Local Motors 'Design Our Car' competition opens

Local Motors has opened its first-ever ‘Design Our Car' competition, which encourages collaboration within the manufacturing community. The open-source automaker is providing two of its Rally Fighter cars, one of which will be built at the company's micro-factory in Arizona while the other will be built live in the Emerging Technology Center at September's International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. Ideas from the design and engineering community are being sought to help design and select a skin for the Rally Fighter that will be built by the Local Motors team this spring.

Video: Rendering a Le Mans racer using layer masks and pixel locking in Photoshop

Local Motors' designer and community manager Aurel Francois has made this short video explaining how he created his 'Alpine A444' render for the Le Mans Themed Sketchwall Challenge. His side view may be simple in terms of perspective but by using layer masks and pixel locking in Photoshop, the blue race car soon comes to life. Worth a watch of you're looking to get to grips with computer rendering techniques.

Fiat to launch Panda Cross off-roader at Geneva

Fiat The Fiat Panda Cross will make its public debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show next month. Based on the Fiat Panda 4x4, the Cross is pumped up with bigger tyres, extra body cladding, raised suspension and myriad technologies to help the little off-roader keep moving when the going gets tough. New off-road technology for the 2014 Fiat Panda Cross As standard, the Fiat Panda Cross comes with a ‘torque-on-demand’ transmission that uses the car’s electronic locking differential (ELD) and advanced electronic stability control (ESC) to send torque to the appropriate axle when slip is detected.