Sherman 843-310r Door Mirror Right Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Coupe on 2040-parts.com

What Car? Car of the Year 2014 winners announced

The annual What Car? Car of the Year Awards took place last night at the Grosvenor House hotel on London’s Park Lane, and MSN Cars was there to report on the winners. There are 16 categories in total, including one overall victor that takes the coveted What Car?

Ferrari 4×4 Hybrid system on the drawing board

One of the drawings Ferrari has submitted to the European Patent Office for a 4x4 Hybrid System [ad#ad-1] Actually, the headline is quite literal. It would appear that Ferrari is working on four wheel drive hybrid propulsion systems after plans submitted to the European Patent Office were uncovered by Autocar. It’s been known for some time that Ferrari has been working on Hybrid and 4WD systems, but these drawings show that Ferrari is in fact looking at a simpler system designed more to aid handling than to benefit the environment.

MIT develops self-transforming materials that behave 'like robots without robots'

A cross-disciplinary research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a suite of programmable materials, including carbon fiber, printed wood grain, textile composites, rubbers and plastics, that self-transform when exposed to an external stimulus. Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, presented a TED talk on 4D printing in 2013, where he demonstrated how a flat sheet of material could effectively build itself when exposed to water, like a robot without a robot. Following positive feedback from industries including aviation, automotive and manufacturing, his lab has been working on developing materials that change according to different activation sources, including heat, light, and air pressure, in addition to water – all of which have automotive relevance.