1994 Polaris 400l 4x4 Rear Chain Guard on 2040-parts.com

A tribute to Ermanno Cressoni

Last week the car design community suffered a great loss. Ermanno Cressoni or 'Arch' as many of his designers affectionately referred to him, passed away on Thursday 30th June in Milan after battling with cancer for 13 months.'Arch' was a reference in car design and his contribution to our profession was much more important than stated in the press. As Alfa Romeo Centro Stile Director he directed the Alfetta berlina, the famous chrome GTV grille from the early seventies is attributed to him, as is the Giuglietta sedan of the late seventies, the Alfa 33, the 75, and many of the racing Alfas we adore from the late 60s and early 70s.

Concept Car of the Week: Lancia Bertone Sibilo (1978)

The second half of the ‘70s saw automotive design fall into an era of uninspired and uninspiring economic cars finished with cheap plastic add-ons and stuffed with beige itchy fabrics. Working from the little Bertone studio in Turin, it seems Marcello Gandini didn't get the memo and carried on drawing futuristic wedgey supercars. With the Sibilo, he pushed his signature angular style to a new level of modernity.

Cash for clunkers plan revives trade fight

Import brand automakers and dealers warned on Thursday that a vehicle scrappage proposal before the Senate would violate trade agreements and could weaken the economy. The Senate could vote on the plan on Thursday, which would offer $10,000 to any moderate- or low-income consumer who trades in a car or truck that is at least 10 years old and buys a new one that is more fuel-efficient and "assembled in the United States." The trade-ins would be scrapped rather than resold. The U.S.-made mandate "smacks of the protectionism that led to the Great Depression," said Barbara Nocera, the top Washington lobbyist for Mazda North American Operations.