Mercury Marine Mirage Plus Pair Stainless on 2040-parts.com

2012 Autoweek Automotive Design Forum

The 2012 – and 19th annual – Autoweek Automotive Design Forum on Thursday 12 January was held at the College for Creative Studies' A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education in Detroit. The event takes place each year during the North American International Auto Show, when designers from around the automotive world converge on the Midwestern city to showcase their work, benchmark the offerings of competitors, and reacquaint themselves with former classmates and coworkers in the industry.

918 a match for Ferrari and McLaren in corners, says Porsche

Had you forgotten about the third contender in the hybrid supercar wars, given the furious competition betwen Ferrari and McLaren? Porsche’s hybrid 918 Spyder is that third competitor, which mates a 4.6-litre normally aspirated V8 to an 84bhp front-drive electric motor and a 127bhp EV motor helping drive the rear tyres. It costs £768,026, and though Porsche won’t quite admit as much, you can still buy one of the 918 being produced - unlike the sold-out LaFerrari.

One Lap of the Web: Happy birthday, John DeLorean, a legally imported Nissan Skyline, Amphicar for sale and the Righini Collection

-- Bust out the candles: American success story, visionary futurist and import/export whiz John DeLorean was born this day in 1925. Everyone knows about his battle to launch the DeLorean Motor Company, but the man behind the stainless-steel legend had a long career as a brilliant engineer that included time at Chrysler, Packard and General Motors. And while we might not all be driving DeLoreans today, we're still talking about both the man and the company -- which is pretty impressive when you think about it.