1956-58 Mopar Intake Manifold Gaskets on 2040-parts.com

Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.

1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’ fetches £1.96 million

A 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’ sold for £1.96 million as the star of R.M. Auction’s 2012 London sale. Star sale of the night in Battersea was a hugely desirable 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’ by Carrozzeria Scaglietti which managed to reach £1.96 million (although a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Alloy Gullwing failed to sell at £2.4 million), but there were plenty of other lots reaching decent prices too.

Spotted: Alfa Romeo 4C caught testing in Michigan

An anonymous reader passed along this short video of a heavily camouflaged Alfa Romeo 4C testing in Michigan this morning. Hopefully it was a passenger doing the filming. The 4C is scheduled to begin production at Maserati's Modena facility this spring.