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Design Contest: LA Design Challenge 2008

The entrants for the fifth annual Design Challenge, part of the Design Los Angeles automobile designers' conference, have now been announced. Nine Southern California automotive design studios - including Audi, BMW, GM, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Volkswagen - have been pitted against one another and asked to develop a concept which best answers a brief entitled 'Motorsports in 2025'. "Automotive designers have always been fascinated with motorsports and this year's Design Challenge has provided them with the opportunity to use their creative talent to look at these cars with new eyes, using innovative technologies and approaches," said Chuck Pelly, director of Design Los Angeles and partner in The Design Academy, Inc.

Future products: Acura will push for luxury credentials without V8, RWD

The dreams of getting a V8 engine, rear-wheel-drive platforms and a sports car to replace the NSX have died for Acura dealers. Now the question is whether Acura can follow Audi's lead and elevate its brand from premium to luxury with front- and all-wheel-drive platforms. Meanwhile, Acura may return to two segments that it had abandoned by adding a compact car and a coupe.

One Lap of the Web: It Ain't Easy Being Front-Engined

-- Twitter friend @dudehugs is a Weird Twitter savant and a curator of goofy license plates. To archive the world's silliest vanity plates, you have to understand your subject, comprehensively -- which is why his daily driver Ford Focus has a Louisiana plate that says "KANYE." Thusly inspired, someone decided to chronicle whether every state had a vanity plate dedicated to the notable fishstick connoisseur and hip-hop artist Kanye West: The United Plates of Kanye diligently checks DMV records to see if someone's driving around with KANYE proudly emblazoned. So far, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nevada have their own mini Yeezys.