Find or Sell any Parts for Your Vehicle in USA

One Lap of the Web: Toyota in the Motor City, GPS-enabled headlamps and a mobile Fiat shop

Mon, 01 Jul 2013

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about.

-- From Bring a Trailer, it's a 1966 Fiat Furgone panel van equipped as a mobile workshop. Apparently “the interior comes stocked with factory tools, Fiat manuals and even a milling machine.” We've heard our fair share of Fix It Again, Tony quips, and this decked-out four-wheeled garage should silence the haters. Too bad it's in Portugal.

-- New Toyota North America engineering and manufacturing boss Osamu “Simon” Nagata is moving to the Motor City, according to a report by the Detroit News. Previous engineering and manufacturing chiefs operated out of Torrance, Calif., but the move to Michigan makes sense -- Toyota's looking to expand North American manufacturing, and the Detroit area is home to numerous crucial suppliers.

-- At Wired, a report on Audi's upcoming GPS-enabled headlamps. Yes, you read that correctly: The LED headlights will use a car's onboard GPS receiver to anticipate upcoming curves and turn just before the driver moves the wheel. These wonder-beams will also alert drivers to the presence of pedestrians on the road, because no one wants to get hit by a thundering A8 (which, incidentally, will be the first car to get the tech later this year).

-- Phil Patton gives a brief rundown of this year's Le Belle Macchine d'Europa, a three-day Italian car event held in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. It's a nice reminder that great car gatherings are happening nearly everywhere this time of year, and often these smaller events are a lot more manageable than the top-tier concours.

-- On the heels of our Passport Escort Max radar detector review, Hooniverse asks: Are your local speed limits too low, or not low enough? There are certainly places where you'll want to keep your speed in check, but automotive technology lets us drive more quickly and more safely than we ever have before. Head to Hooniverse to join the discussion.




By Autoweek editors