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Early cars, fashion on display at the Petersen

Automotivated, a new exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, traces the evolution of clothes worn in cars--from the bulky circus-tent stuff people had to wear to keep from freezing to death in the jangly, open-topped conveyances of 100 years ago, up to the height of the European Concours in the 1920s and '30s, when what you and your date wore was just as important to winning best of show as the styling of your Delahaye/Delage/Talbot Lago. “In the earliest days of the automobile, you were sitting on the car, you weren't sitting in it,” said Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen. So the first section of the exhibit shows people (mannequins dressed as people) in heavy, practical overcoats, scarves and goggles.

Scottish Car of the Year 2011: Big night for Jaguar Land Rover

Scottish Car of the Year 2011 Last night saw the awards dinner for the Scottish car of the Year at the Thistle in Glasgow, with Land Rover taking top honours and Jaguar walking away with three gongs (well, two gongs and the motoring equivalent of a ‘Lifetime Achievement’ trophy). The unstoppable Range Rover Evoque took the big prize, being voted the Scottish Car of the Year. Of course, it also won SUV of the year (it would have been a bit odd if it didn’t) and at this rate – and the great feedback from customers and media – Land Rover look like they’ll be mopping up a lot of gongs this next year.

Demise of kei cars on the horizon?

The kei car has long been a staple of the Japanese automobile industry and its car culture. Too diminutive for Western markets, the tiny cars and trucks are a strong influencer of design in Japan. Now, as The New York Times reports, the Japanese government has hit kei cars with increases in sales tax, gasoline prices and has reduced the kei car tax break introduced to make the cars popular in the first place by 50 percent.