Volkswagen Golf 1996 Right Head Light Assembled [4110800] on 2040-parts.com

Michael Mauer appointed head of design at Porsche

Porsche AG has anounced the appointment of Michael Mauer to take over as chief designer from Harm Lagaay, who will retire on July 1 after 15 years in the post. Michael Mauer, 41, studied automobile design at Pforzheim University, and started his career at Mercedes-Benz. In 1989, he was appointed design project leader for the Mercedes V Class models, and was in charge of design work for the first SLK model generation.

Audi hosts student workshop in Design UNIverse

Audi has hosted a Design UNIverse event in Ingolstadt as part of its plan to support the next generation of automotive designers. 42 student designers from four European universities were challenged to create models of a futuristic Audi that embodies the idea of "Vorsprung Durch Technik" while working closely with designers and discussing trends and how to create emotional products. The students – from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (Slovakia), Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan (Italy), the Offenbach University of Art and Design (Germany) and the Royal College of Art London (Great Britain) – created 46 different models.

Cars aren’t to blame for Global Warming – it’s down to fat people!

Being fat creates an extra tonne of Co2 emissions a year Much as I’m prone to warn against blindly believing the ‘Cars are destroying the Planet’ mantra we hear every day, it’s not me laying the blame at the feet of our chubby readers. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicines has made the claim, for a variety of reasons, explained by Dr Phil Edwards who said “Walking around in a heavy body is like driving a gas guzzler”. But of course, that needs a little extra explanation to put it in to context.