E3 Spark Plug E3.52 on 2040-parts.com

Whos Where: Pierre Castinel is Head of Design at Tata

Indian automaker Tata has been front page news often in recent times, first because of the impressive one-lakh Nano, which changes the automotive industry playing field, and most recently because of its acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford's Premiere Automotive Group for the tidy sum of $2.3 billion - less than half what Ford paid for both companies in 1989.  At the helm of Tata's design efforts is Pierre Castinel, Head of Design. Though only officially announced in March this year, Castinel has been active at Tata since he left Renault in summer 2007, a company he worked at for 20 years. Castinel started as a modeler for Peugeot and worked there for three years.

Mercedes touts future safety with research vehicle

In 1980, when several automakers began to use airbags, there were people who thought that cars couldn't possibly get any safer. Karl-Heinz Baumann, a safety researcher at Mercedes-Benz AG in Stuttgart, was not one of them. "We said, 'No, it cannot be all,' and we kept doing more research." The results of that research are presented on the company's most recent Experimental Safety Vehicle (ESV), on display now in the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart.

Dodge expands Blacktop lineup for 2013

In November, Dodge added the Avenger, Challenger and Charger vehicles to the list of Blacktop special editions. Dodge says they were received well, and the company is adding the Journey, Durango and Grand Caravan to the list of cars that can get the Blacktop treatment. The Grand Caravan Blacktop comes equipped with 17-inch polished aluminum wheels with black accents, black grille, black headlight bezels and fog lights.