Hot seats: from design to delivery [sponsored]

As the user demands on car interiors are increasingly influenced by their growing design consciousness, so suppliers like Lear strive to bring better-engineered seating to satisfy. 2013 was another big year for Lear, as Jeanette Puig-Pey, its global fabric & leather design manager, enthuses: "At our ‘Design2Perform' event we celebrated the unveiling of our brand new collection, with special emphasis on color and texture and our TeXstyle Enhance product, perfect for customization. Laser etching is part of this offering, it is exclusive to Lear Corporation and can be used to add refined design elements to cloth and leather." A mix of fabric and leather in seating is not new but is often seen by the consumer as a cheaper alternative to full leather.

Jaguar F-Type Configurator LIVE

The online configurator for the new Jaguar F-Type is now live. Our Jaguar F-Type V8 S ended up costing £91,440. The F-Type configurator is a decent effort with just about everything speccable – and viewable as you spec it up – from colours and wheels to active exhaust and flat bottomed steering wheel.

Video shows race car flip from driver's view

Doug Peterson brought a new race car to the SCCA Chicago Region's June Sprints at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., June 15-17. But the car's status moved from new to trashed in a few blinks of an eye. Video from a camera mounted on the car shows Peterson making a move to the right as the field moves toward the start/finish line.