Watches 2009 Audi A8 4-door Sedan Steering Wheel on 2040-parts.com

The Future Role of the Vehicle Designer

The vehicle design department at the Royal College of Art hosted the second in a series of five lectures looking at the future of the profession last week. Moving on from the previous week's topic of sustainability, this debate explored the future roles and responsibilities of the vehicle designer. Head of department Dale Harrow began by posing the question "Is it time to rethink – do we still need the car?" Although still relevant, Harrow's ultimate answer to this was that the profession was about to see marked change, with the end to an era where "designers are locked behind closed doors in studios".

The Toyota FT-1 sure does look like the Bertone Mantide

We really liked the Toyota FT-1, which caught us off guard in the best possible way when it emerged at the Detroit auto show. In fact, we liked Toyota's “spiritual pace car” enough to call it the most fun new thing on the floor -- and we're hoping the automaker's execs take notice. Reader Dennis Liu certainly noticed the car, which seemed rather familiar to him: He feels that, coincidentally or not, it looks a lot like the Bertone Mantide.

2013 Mercedes SLS AMG GT revealed

Mercedes-Benz has revealed two additions to the SLS range with the Mercedes SLS AMG GT Coupe and Roadster with more power and cosmetic tweaks. It’s almost exactly a year since we had the last addition to the Mercedes SLS range when MB took the roof off the Gullwing to give us the SLS AMG Roadster. And now the range of SLS road cars is about to double with the addition of a more powerful SLS Coupe and Roadster in the guise of the new Mercedes SLS AMG GT.