Sportster /dyna 39m/m Front Fork Assembly on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes-Benz has big plans for small cars

Breaking outside its American position of rear-wheel-drive luxury vehicles, Mercedes-Benz will launch its new front-wheel-drive architecture in the United States in the next three years in the form of a coupe, SUV and possibly a small wagon or compact hatchback. Joachim Schmidt, Mercedes' global sales and marketing boss, said Mercedes is developing at least four models based on its MFA, or Mercedes Front-wheel-drive Architecture. "We will introduce the next generation of our MFA family to the U.S.," Schmidt said in an interview.

2006 Michelin Challenge Design seeks vehicle designs for California market

Michelin issued a call for entries to the global design community this week to kick off the 2006 Michelin Challenge Design, one of the industry's fastest growing vehicle design forums. In the last four years, Michelin Challenge Design has been the catalyst for students in design universities, design firms, professional designers from top OEMs, and individual designers from all over the world to have their work exhibited at a major international auto show in support of a central theme. Last year, submissions were received from 50 countries worldwide with selected designs displayed at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in January.

Flavio Manzoni on the design secrets of the Ferrari LaFerrari [w/Video]

Flavio Manzoni has explained the secrets behind the design of the LaFerrari hypercar in an interview with Autocar's Steve Sutcliffe. Ferrari's design chief, speaking at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, talks of how the LaFerrari was designed to manifest the future of Ferrari and mark a milestone in the design process. Presentations of four 1:1 scale models adorn the walls of the room kept exclusively for project LaFerrari, although there were five initial presentations – three from Ferrari and two from Pininfarina.