1963 Dodge 330 440 Polara 500 Dash Instrument Cluster Bezel-gauges-switches on 2040-parts.com

Ford to sell two concepts at auction

Amongst the numerous one-off concept cars and rare historic vehicles set to be auctioned off at the forthcoming RM Auctions sale in Monterey, California, Ford has contributed two of its own unique concept cars to be sold. All proceeds of the sale will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) charity. The race-inspired 2005 Ford Shelby GR-1 concept and the 2001 Thunderbird Sports Roadster concept will be presented by the world's largest collector car auction house on August 19th in California as part of its Monterey sale. It is believed that the 2001 Shelby will sell for between $150,000 and $200,000 while the 2001 Thunderbird concept will fetch between $125,000–$175,000. There will be no reserve on the cars.

Video: Gordon Wagener on the Mercedes Concept Style Coupe

Mercedes-Benz has released a short video in which Head of Design Gordon Wagener presents the new Concept Style Coupe. The Concept Style Coupe, officially introduced at the recent Beijing auto show, was first seen at the Avant/Garde festival prior to Beijing in an unusual move for the brand. "In this case we thought the car was so progressive and avant-gardistic that we decided to put it here into this art show," says Wagener.

Fiat 500 gets Stop-Start

Flavour of the month, stop-start, and here’s another to add to the list. The Fiat 500 gets Start&Stop (I’ve lost count of the different monikers) as an option on the 1.2 Lounge, using Bosch technology to beef up the system to make it reliable. The Stop/Start also gets another Fiat moniker – Blue&Me – which gives the driver EcoDrive to aid emissions and adds hands-free phone and an entertainment system.