Distributor Cap Cover Standard Dr-443 on 2040-parts.com

LA Auto Show Design Challenge to tackle future CHP vehicles

When one thinks of Los Angeles, the near future and police vehicles, one particular conveyance comes to mind — the Syd Mead-designed Spinner from Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic, Blade Runner. Perhaps cognizant that the time of the film's dystopian setting, 2019, is less than seven years away, the L.A auto show Design Challenge group has set a date of 2025. What will California look like 13 years in the future?

New 2015 Volkswagen Passat detailed ahead of July reveal

The 2015 VW Passat (pictured) is lighter and more economical The eighth generation Volkswagen Passat is detailed today by VW with design sketches and the news that the all-new Passat will lose 85kg in weight and get more economical engines. Due to be revealed in the metal in July – and debuting at the Paris Motor Show in October – the new Passat will go on sale before the end of 2014 with first deliveries in early 2015. Thanks to a weight loss of upt 85kg – achieved by using high-strength, hot-formed steel and aluminium in some areas – the new Passat will offer fuel efficiency improved by up to 20 per cent and, although the exterior dimensions of the new Passat are slightly smaller than the current model, the new Passat will offer more room for passengers and luggage.

'American Nitro' is back!

"Seventies drag-race mayhem is back!" bills "American Nitro," a schlocky drive-in exploitation film whose only quote of praise, from a dog-eared period issue of "Car Craft," reads, simply, "SPECTACULAR CRASHES!" Director Bill Kimberlin says that he made "American Nitro" in 1979 as a response to Tom Wolfe's influential 1965 essay, "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby." "I was just getting out of high school in a small town in Northern California when Wolfe's book came out," he said. "Nitro came about as my response to the car culture I was exposed to in the small valley town of Boonville, Calif. Instead of 'American Graffiti,' I made 'American Nitro.'" A fitting comparison, in fact, considering Kimberlin later worked for George Lucas at ILM, starting with" Return of the Jedi." Now the movie is being released on DVD for the first time -- beware of bootlegs, warns the website -- and digitally remastered, while retaining the explosive charm and goofy narration of the 1979 original.