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The craziest cars from the Frankfurt Motor Show

Frankfurt 2013 offered an automotive smorgasbord of technology, from out-there concepts like Vauxhall’s ‘condor-winged’ Monza to down to Earth next-gen production vehicles like Volkswagen’s e-Up! and e-Golf all-electric hatchback pairing. In the middle stood our next 10 cars.

Maeda named new Mazda design boss, replacing van den Acker

Ikuo Maeda is the new head of design at Mazda Motor Corp. The man who is credited with styling the Mazda's flagship sports car takes over for Dutchman Laurens van den Acker, 43, who has decided to leave the company "to pursue other interests," the automaker said in a statement today. Van den Acker, who joined Mazda in 2006, will remain at the automaker until April 10 to ensure a smooth transition for Maeda, Mazda said.

Michelin Challenge Design competition celebrates 10 years

Michelin has released a short video documenting the last ten years of the Challenge Design competition. With excepts from jury members Freeman Thomas, Director of Advanced Design at Ford; Victor Nacif, VP of Design at Nissan Design Europe; Geza Loczi, Director of Design at Volvo Monitoring Concept Center; Dave Marek, Advanced Design Director for Honda North America; Steward Reed, Chair of Transportation Design at ACCD; Frank Saucedo, Design Director of GM's Advanced Design Studio in California and Chris Chapman of BMW Designworks USA, the video outlines some of the 2700 entries Michelin has received since the competition's inception in 2002. That year, the MCD display at the NAIAS in Detroit featured cars from European design houses.