Mazda’s Russian concept car: first picture

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 16 June 2008 10:18 Want proof that the Russian car market is on its way to becoming one of the world’s biggest and most important? Mazda today confirmed it would build this bespoke concept car for the 2008 Moscow International Automobile Salon. The one-off show car will be a compact crossover specifically aimed at the Russian market.

Bentley Continental GT – Pop Art

The Bentley Pop Art - created by Pop Artist Romero Britto So it’s quite startling to see a Bentley Continental GT with a paint job by renowned ‘Pop Artist to the Stars’ Romero Britto, who has created this one-off Continental GT – donated by Bentley Motors – for an exhibition in Germany at Automobil Forum Unter den Linden, which runs from 10th July until 6th September. But as I’m sure you’ll have guessed, this is not just a Pop Art paint job for the sake of it. The Pop Art Bentley will be auctioned off at the end of the exhibition in aid of the Nathalie Todenhöfer Foundation for multiple sclerosis and Best Buddies, a charity for the mentally challenged – which is all very noble – and good on Bentley for donating the Continental GT.

Mercedes-Benz to cut production time, halve number of vehicle architectures

Mercedes-Benz is restructuring its global production network to cut the average production time for its models to 30 hours by 2015 from 43 in 2008. "We have increased productivity by 2 percent a year over the last few years. We will be accelerating our productivity efforts," Mercedes production boss Wolfgang Bernhard said during an investor conference that was part of the automaker's plant opening in Kecskemet, Hungary, on Thursday.