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First Sight: Mercedes-Benz SL

The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit but Car Design News got an early peek of the final production car and had a chat with its designers at Mercedes' US advanced design studio in Carlsbad, California back in November. "We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design," director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. "So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy." In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality' and ‘cleanness' – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras.

First details of 2013 Skoda Octavia emerge

More details and images of the 2013 Skoda Octavia have been revealed ahead of its official announcement. The C-segment Octavia will be the fourth model to sit on the MQB platform after the Volkswagen Golf Mk7, Seat Leon and Audi A3. These images suggest the car will offer few surprises – from its familiar corporate grille to the new, sharp-edged, cut-glass inspired surfacing first seen on the Rapid this third-generation Octavia looks set to build on its solid and loyal customer base.

Honda fires new F1 engine for first time

EVEN BEFORE the 2013 Formula 1 season has ended preparations and development are already well under way for next year, especially so because of a radical change to the rules. From 2014 all cars will be powered by small 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines, signalling the end of the current 2.4-litre non-turbocharged V8 engines, bringing them closer in basic layout - if not output - to normal road car engines. For Honda 2015 is a return to the sport in partnership with McLaren, and the Japanese firm's engines will power the 2015 McLaren challenger.