Midland Metals 44168 Bronze 90° Street Elbow / 2 Bronze 90 Deg S on 2040-parts.com

Michelin design contest inspires young minds

The College for Creative Studies in Detroit held its 24th Michelin Design challenge, in which Michelin sponsors a design and development project for one of CCS' transportation design classes. The competition works like this: CCS and Michelin get together to develop a theme, then CCS picks which transportation design class will work on the project. The idea, Michelin says, is to celebrate and promote the kind of vehicle design that highlights original thinking and innovation.

Next generation MINI Countryman to arrive in 2016

The next generation MINI Countryman to arrive in 2016 (current model pictured) We’ve recently had the arrival of the all new MINI, and the next year or so will see the roll-out of a succession of takes on the new MINI. But that process of building a MINI for every possible niche won’t complete until the MINI Countryman (and its coupe sibling, the MINI Paceman) are replaced. That now looks likely to happen in 2016 as, according to Automotive News, BMW is to end production of the MINI Countryman and Paceman at Magna Steyr in Austria in 2016 and move production of the Countryman and Paceman to Oxford and the new MINI Plant in the Netherlands.

Infiniti Etherea concept (2011): Shiro Nakamura's guide

The global unveiling of the Etherea concept car and a tie-in with reigning F1 champions Red Bull Racing made for a busy start to the year for Infiniti. In between endless meetings and flights, we collared Nissan and Infiniti design chief Shiro Nakamura to get the low-down on the Etherea… When did you start work on the Etherea? 'It was about 18 months ago.