Rotax 503 Snowmobile Air Intake Silencer on 2040-parts.com

Concept Car of the Week: Italdesign Machimoto (1986)

The Machimoto might look and sound like a Japanese concept, but it was developed in Europe in the Turin-based Italdesign studio, and was based on a Volkswagen Golf GTI platform. The name actually derives from MACHIna (car in Italian) and MOTOciclo (motorcycle) as the perfect hybrid between the worlds of two- and four-wheelers. Unveiled on its home turf at the Turin motor show in 1986, it landed like a UFO, shocking both the public and the press.

VW Golf R at 2009 Frankfurt motor show

By Ben Barry First Official Pictures 15 September 2009 10:30 We’ve seen it lapping the Nürburgring disguised as a 2.0-litre TDI, but at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show Volkwagen officially revealed the fastest ever production Golf: the Golf R. And it’s coming soon! British dealers will take orders in October, with the first owners snaffling the keys in January 2010.

Essay: Variable Degrees of Translucency

Car door panels and fenders are generally made of steel, sometimes of aluminum or plastic composites, and you can't see through them. Car windows, on the other hand, are made of a transparent sandwich of glass and plastic - and you can see through them. But in the future there will be variable degrees of transparency: translucent elements where once there were none, traditional window areas that will have opaque elements and graduated progressions from opaque to see-through.