Muffler, Aluminized Steel, Natural Finish on 2040-parts.com

Wheel maker connects with exotic clientele via social media

Reaching potential buyers of custom wheels for exotic cars takes more than buying ads in magazines. Miami-based ADV.1 Wheels is building a business fueled by a social-media approach that includes car-forum interaction, photo shoots and short films on the Internet. The company launched a Facebook fan page in late March, has received more than 59,000 “likes” and aims for 100,000--at which point ADV.1 Wheels has promised to give away a set of the company’s Trakfunction wheels.

Contest: Volkswagen Slipstream wins 2007 LA Design Challenge

Volkswagen's Slipstream concept has won the fourth annual Design Challenge competition, part of the Design Los Angeles automobile designer's conference. The award was presented during the second press day of the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show.  The theme of this year's competition, RoboCar of 2057, asked eight automotive design studios in California to form their vision of the future by depicting a vehicle that incorporates artificial intelligence engineered to make life easier and more attractive to consumers 50 years from now. Designers entered two-dimensional renderings and concept descriptions predicting how the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence will integrate into the automobile to make life safer, more practical and attractive, and the entries were judged by multi-discipline design professionals who selected the winner based on its originality of creative concept, integration of robotics and level of adaptation to a variety of environmental conditions and consumer needs.

Aston Martin V12 Zagato confirmed for limited production

Aston Martin V12 Zagato confirmed for production It didn’t take a genius to work out that the Aston Martin V12 Zagato would not just be incarnated as the Zig and Zag cars for the Nurburgring, but as a proper production car. Not a production car in the true sense, but a limited edition car much like the Aston Martin Zagato’s gone by. In fact we reported some time ago that we expected the V12 Zagato to start a limited production run of either 89 or 99 cars as soon as the Aston Martin One-77 ends production, and that the target price would be in the £300-350k range.