Trimax Wheel Lock on 2040-parts.com

Hot seats: from design to delivery [sponsored]

As the user demands on car interiors are increasingly influenced by their growing design consciousness, so suppliers like Lear strive to bring better-engineered seating to satisfy. 2013 was another big year for Lear, as Jeanette Puig-Pey, its global fabric & leather design manager, enthuses: "At our ‘Design2Perform' event we celebrated the unveiling of our brand new collection, with special emphasis on color and texture and our TeXstyle Enhance product, perfect for customization. Laser etching is part of this offering, it is exclusive to Lear Corporation and can be used to add refined design elements to cloth and leather." A mix of fabric and leather in seating is not new but is often seen by the consumer as a cheaper alternative to full leather.

2014 Porsche Cayman gets a performance-testing iPhone app

To promote the new 2014 Cayman, Porsche has cooked up an iPhone app called “Cayman Code of the Curve.” You're probably already rolling your eyes at the prospect of another automaker app that is little more than a downloadable advertisement, but this seems to be something different -- the app is designed to record your driving performance in real-time and then share results with friends. Porsche enthusiast site flatsixes.com has an exclusive first look at the app, which is still in development but is reported to be coming “soon.” Based on preliminary screenshots provided by Porsche, the app instructs users to set up a variety of courses -- cone slalom, autocross and reaction-time challenge courses are shown -- then uses the iPhone's internal accelerometer and GPS receiver to track and record your performance. You'll also be able to use the app's “record your curve” function to share favorite drives with friends on Facebook.

Abarth 500C EsseEsse & Punto Evo EsseEsse at Paris

The Abarth 500c EsseEsse arrives at Paris Abarth do a very good job of warming up the odd Fiat or two (well, they have been doing it for quite a long time), the most recent offerings being the Abarth 500C and the Abarth Punto Evo which we saw when we trollied off to Goodwood in July. But there is a second flavour of Abarth. Best to think of it as the ‘Chilli’ Abarth; Abarth call it EsseEsse.