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Frankfurt Motor Show 2013: stand-by-stand A-Z

The 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show opens to the public 12-22 September, following two press days on 10-11 September. Here’s an A-Z stand-by-stand run down of what you can expect. MSN Cars will be bringing you full and complete coverage of the event, including written reports, live picture galleries and videos – so if you can’t make it in person, we will keep you completely up to date.

Aston Martin drops Cygnet city car

Autocar is reporting that the diminutive Aston Martin Cygnet has been dropped from the company’s portfolio. The automaker, now owned by Prodrive and private equity firm Invenstindustrial, will focus on its “core product range,” also known as “good cars.” Autocar posits that the justification for the Cygnet was to continue producing V8 and V12 cars, while keeping its average CO2 emissions down. The Cygnet shared bones with the Toyota iQ city car and used a 97-hp, 1.3-liter engine and got 58.9 mpg using the U.S.

Ducati 1199 Panigale merges components, sheds weight [w/gallery]

Ducati has released an image of its new 1199 Panigale without its fairings, illustrating how multiple elements of the bike have been fused together to make it incredibly lightweight and compact. The motorcycle manufacturer has managed to reduce the overall dry weight to be reduced by 10kg to a benchmark weight of just 164kg. The monocoque connects to the specially-designed engine's cylinder heads and comes forward to house the steering head bearings.