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One Lap of the Web: Automotive feats of strength, stylish eBay finds and Australian speed limits

-- Like you, we've often wondered which vehicle would win in a tug of war: a Land Rover Defender, or a diesel Ram truck. And while we were wondering, some enterprising gents in the U.K. have actually gone out and done it.

Scuola Politecnica di Design announces Chris Bangle workshop

Italy’s Scuola Politecnica di Design has announced a seven-day workshop with former BMW Group design boss Chris Bangle at its campus in Milan. Themed ‘Future Personal Emotional Mobility’ and scheduled to run from 18 to 24 September 2009, the workshop invites design degree graduates and experienced car designers to take part in a project to create a new breed of sustainable shared transportation for the year 2050. Based on the concept that the mass migration of people from the countryside to cities will in the future create even more social, economic and ecological differences between population zones, this event will see attendees work closely with Bangle towards designing systems that engage on an emotional as well as an economic level, satisfying the personal transportation needs – and desires – of a disparate global population while minimising impact on the environment.

Jaguar F-Type DOES mean next Jaguar XK heading upmarket

Ian Callum has said that the new Jaguar F-Type will give Jaguar the opportunity to push the next generation Jaguar XK upmarket. Autocar has been chatting with Jaguar’s design guru, Ian Callum, who has said pretty much what we said in September, namely that the F-Type’s arrival will allow the next XK to be ‘More special than a GT’. Ian also speculates that the next XK could grow in size too to be a bit more than a 2+2, but it seems pretty clear that Jaguar will be looking to take the next XK firmly in to territory currently held by cars like the Aston Martin DB9 and Vanquish.