6 Volt Seal Beam (red) Guide # 451926 on 2040-parts.com

Ford to sell two concepts at auction

Amongst the numerous one-off concept cars and rare historic vehicles set to be auctioned off at the forthcoming RM Auctions sale in Monterey, California, Ford has contributed two of its own unique concept cars to be sold. All proceeds of the sale will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) charity. The race-inspired 2005 Ford Shelby GR-1 concept and the 2001 Thunderbird Sports Roadster concept will be presented by the world's largest collector car auction house on August 19th in California as part of its Monterey sale. It is believed that the 2001 Shelby will sell for between $150,000 and $200,000 while the 2001 Thunderbird concept will fetch between $125,000–$175,000. There will be no reserve on the cars.

General Motors will prep plants in 2012 for next-generation pickups

General Motors will begin retooling assembly plants next year to build the next generation of its full-sized pickups, GM's U.S. sales chief Don Johnson said. "We have some scheduled plant downtime in 2012 as we convert to the next generation of our pickups," he said.

Mini Life Ball (2011): Mini's latest one-off charity special

This is the Mini 'Red Mudder'. a one-off custom Mini created by Canadian fashion designers DSQUARED² for the Life Ball, an annual AIDS charity event held in Vienna. Mini Life Ball (2011): the lowdown (err, jacked-up) DSQUARED² are Canadian twin brothers Dean and Dan Caten, who launched their first fashion collection in 1995 and have been flummoxing sub-editors of non-fashion publications with their company name ever since.