Arctic Cat Backrest Adjustor Knob; Part #: 0616-569 on 2040-parts.com

Cars & Coffee: Two ingredients to start off your SoCal weekend just right

Cars & Coffee is not yet on the FDA's list of the four basic food groups--but it really should be. It started out as a word-of-mouth gathering of eclectic and cool cars at a spot called Crystal Cove just south of Newport Beach, Calif., but it quickly outgrew that home. “Some of the guys got together, just a spontaneous gathering of, ‘Well, let's bring our cool cars,' ” said Pebble Beach judge, Ferrari collector and well-loved Ford PR guy John Clinard, one of, if not the main driver behind the event.

Autodesk Automotive Days - Munich 2009

Autodesk's Automotive Days design conferences, launched in Munich in 2008, have highlighted the key growth area of digital prototyping. And at last month's conference the focus was once again broadened to include coverage of conceptual design and creative visualization (at the very beginning of the design process) and design for manufacture - at the culmination of the process. Speakers from Autodesk outlined the innovative features of their latest product suites, while keynote presentations from leading automotive designers such as Frank Stephenson of McLaren and Volvo's Rickard Franklin showed in fascinating detail how the benefits of these software systems were being maximized in busy corporate design studios.

Toyota SAI – New Toyota Hybrid

The new Toyota SAI will be based on the Lexus HS250 (pictured) Update 20/0/09: The Toyota Sai has now been revealed. The Toyota SAI is going to launch on the 20th October in  Japan. To all intents and purposes it is a Lexus HS250 under the skin  and features a similar drivetrain to the new Prius, but with a 2.4 litre petrol engine instead of the 1.8 litre in the Prius.