Mercedes CLA employs a cat in new advert to demonstrate its aerodynamic shape (video)

It’s the Mercedes CLA sliding cat advert We’re not entirely sure that Mercedes has chosen to focus attention on a cat in a new advert for the CLA to dig at Jaguar’s mickey-take of its chicken advert for Magic Body Control, but it’s definitely the cat that’s front and centre, regardless of the motivation. With the new Mercedes CLA boasting exceptional aerodynamic credentials, Mercedes has employed a stunt cat to slide up and over the CLA to demonstrate just how slippery their new compact saloon is. Already shown on TV in the UK at the weekend (during the new series of Britain’s Got Talent), the moggie in question – William, apparently – glides effortlessly over the CLA’s slippery shape to a soundtrack playing Rossini’s Duetto buffo di due gatti (which you may not think you know, but you do).

Land Rover start tease for new Range Rover Sport

Land Rover has started to tease the debut of the new Range Rover Sport ahead of a live drive through Manhattan to show the new Sport to NYC. In the last couple of years we’ve had two of the new Land Rover products hit showrooms – the Range Rover Evoque and the 2013 Range Rover – to almost universal praise and big queues around the world as car buyers clamour for Land Rover’s latest new toys. The next instalment in Land Rover’s new model assault is the arrival of the 2014 Range Rover Sport, a car that combines elements of both the new Range Rover and Evoque as Land Rover conspire to make the new RRS the car it should always have been.

Videos: Chris Bangle shares his views on design and the future of car design

Chris Bangle is a man that needs no introduction on these pages. Both revered and castigated, Bangle's work has undoubtedly been influential for a generation of designers. His unconventional practices – employed at a time when design was still largely segregated from other departments during the development process – yielded many avantgarde and contentious designs, but Bangle's fundamental understanding of the design process, creative vision and desire for change can never be cast in doubt. While Bangle shares his views on the future of the car in the video to the right, the video to the left provides an insight into the former BMW design chief's thought processes and gives us a glimpse into his home and studio in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.