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Bentley uses 3D printing to prototype new designs [w/Video]

3D printing is changing the way the world makes things by helping people of all disciplines to enhance and refine their ideas cheaply, quickly and effectively.  Bentley is the latest carmaker to utilize the technology to fabricate and prototype different parts to see how they'll look and work on the finished design. Using 3D printers, designers can produce parts from the exterior and interior such as the grille, tires, headlamps and door handles as well as combine different types of contrasting materials, ranging from hard plastics to rubbers of different tensile strengths.  The technology allows the user to create a solid 3D object straight from a digital model by printing layers of material on top of each other. This process rapidly decreases the delivery time, as parts can be printed overnight, and allows designers to be more creative in their ideas because of the reduced cost. Bentley isn't the first carmaker to use 3D printing technology. Audi announced last year it was beginning to prototype vehicle parts using 3D printers.

Speedy green: Italdesign-Giugiaro's Frazer-Nash Namir

Whatever uncertainties await us on the other side of oil, there will still be speed. If the Frazer-Nash Namir is any indication, there will still be a frightening amount of it. One of the stars of this year's Geneva motor show, the Namir points the way to a responsible generation's supercar--and sets out to prove the technology for its mass-production cars, too.

Driving the Nissan EV: We get seat time in a prototype

We got to fling a prototype of the coming Nissan electric vehicle around the parking lot at Dodger Stadium and, like the Dodgers themselves on Opening Day, it was a winner. The prototype body was a previous-generation Cube, but the drivetrain of the car was "99 percent there," according to Nissan. So we drove an old car with the new drivetrain.