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Smart wins 2011 LA Design Challenge

Daimler's Smart division won this year's LA Design Challenge, the brief of which was to create ‘Hollywood's Hottest New Movie Car'. The entries were judged on how well the vehicle reflected its brand attributes relative to the plot, how the vehicle related to the target audience, and the level of imagination found within the entry. Befitting the ‘Hollywood movie car' theme, the uniqueness of the story concept and the character development of the vehicle were also factors that helped determine the overall winner.

First Sight: Mini

The first 'New' Mini was launched just five years ago, replacing the original Mini that had changed only in detail since its 1959 debut. Designed by Frank Stephenson, now head of design at Fiat, the current design has been a sales success and most significantly has been very influential in demonstrating how small cars need not be explicitly functionalist, smaller versions of larger car types or feel cheap. The new 'New' Mini, designed under the direction of Gert Hildebrand at Mini, is announced today with exterior design by Marcus Syring, interior design by Marc Girard and colour and trim design by Annette Baumeister.

One Lap of the Web: falling rocks, falling prices, and a Ford Frontenac?

-- If this isn't the automotive video of the week, then we don't know what is. A car in Taiwan just barely avoids being crushed by a gigantic boulder, whose water and mud bow wave shoves the car a few feet before the boulder even lands anywhere near the car. Watch the top of the hill at the very start of the video.