Chevy V-6 Vortec Composition Valve Covers on 2040-parts.com

Who's Where: Camilo Pardo leaves Ford

Camilo Pardo has ended his 24 year long career at Ford to pursue his numerous other creative endeavors. CDN caught up with the accomplished artist, sculptor, clothing and furniture designer at his annual Designer's Night bash in Detroit, where he told us how he was now "free to do anything", but would not divulge details as the announcement was not yet official. A native New Yorker, Pardo graduated from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit and was granted the Industrial Design Society of America Merit Award in 1985.

Rumormill: Aston Martin Cygnet could get V12

A few years ago, if you would have asked us about 500-hp city cars, we would have said, “Awesome, but never going to happen.” We were proven wrong with last year's Nissan Juke-R and we may be proven wrong again with a V12-powered Aston Martin Cygnet. That's right, Autocar reports that Aston is studying the feasibility of taking the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet and shoehorning the V12 from its Vantage and DB9 models. Aston says it could fit the V12 in the tiny car's engine bay without major modifications.

Volkswagen debuts tuned Jettas for SEMA

It's easy to get the impression that SEMA is all about unattainable and outlandish show cars, ones that will never see the street, but in reality there is plenty of iron (or carbon fiber really) from all sides of all ponds that we could see people driving on the street. And just to reinforce that point, Volkswagen has brought a couple of tuned Jettas to SEMA that could almost pass for stock cars. This being SEMA, all that really means is that you're not looking hard enough -- the subtle cars you see are probably sleepers.