Kawasaki 550 Gpz, Ltd Coil on 2040-parts.com

Cadillac CTS-V priced to undercut M5, XFR

By Gareth Evans Motor Industry 21 January 2009 10:17 Cadillac’s new CTS-V supersaloon – claimed to be the be the most powerful Cadillac ever built – will undercut its European competition by several thousand pounds. Prices will start at £56,495, positioning the new Cadillac CTS-V just below the new Jaguar XF-R (£59,900) and comfortably undercutting German rivals such as the BMW M5 (£63,325) and Audi RS6 (a fulsome £74,550). Performance figures for the CTS-V make interesting reading, with 60mph being dispatched in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 191mph for the manual car (175mph for the automatic).

Ken Ma appointed VP Design at Chang'an

Former Shanghai Automotive Technical Center (SATC) design director Ken Ma joined Changan Automobile Group as vice president of the firm's Engineering Research Center late last year. Ma's new role puts him in charge of the Group's global design department, reporting directly to Changan group chairman LiuPin Xu on all design matters. But the move also effectively places him in the highest design position at any mainstream automotive company in China – a breakthrough for the country's automotive design industry.

Electroluminescent Lumilor coating transforms any surface into a lamp

Thanks to advances in LED and lasers, an emphasis on lamp design is a rapidly growing trend. But what if any or all of a car's surfaces, inside or out, could become lamps at the flick of a switch? That question has been partially answered by Darkside Scientific.