Skidoo Backcountry/freeride/summit Upper A-arms on 2040-parts.com

Car Design of the Year winners awarded at Car Design Night Geneva 2013

The winners of the 2012 Car Design of the Year Awards, as voted for by Car Design News readers, were announced at the annual Car Design Night at By Pass nightclub on the evening of the first Geneva motor show press day. Over 350 car designers were in attendance to catch up with their colleagues and meet new peers at the first European show of the year. Car Design News' editor, Owen Ready, presented the winners of the annual Car Design of the Year Awards.

Webinars: Listen again to Autodesk 'Automotive visualization, new quality standards in Virtual Prototyping'

Autodesk presented its latest Webinar, 'Automotive visualization, new quality standards in Virtual Prototyping', on 11 April. Virtual Prototyping is one of the most important steps in the development of a new car allowing the evaluation of a prototype in different aspects before it's even built. Autodesk's new VRED product line can be used throughout the whole design and construction process on a single data basis, without the need to re-do work.

Nissan Friend-ME – looks better than it sounds: Shanghia Motor Show

Nissan has built the Friend-ME (which must rank as one of the most useless car monikers ever) to appeal to the potentially huge market of ‘B?línghòu’ buyers, a group of buyers, born in the 1980s, who grew up as single children thanks to China’s ‘One Child’ policy. Nissan sees this group as totally reliant on their network of friends for support, and has built a car that owners can enjoy with their friends on an equal basis. So every one of the four seats gets full instrumentation - SatNav, Fuel, Speed – and an ‘Oracle Stone’ runs down the centre of the cabin which can display whatever content the occupants want from their connected Smartphones and tablets.