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Contest: Volkswagen Slipstream wins 2007 LA Design Challenge

Volkswagen's Slipstream concept has won the fourth annual Design Challenge competition, part of the Design Los Angeles automobile designer's conference. The award was presented during the second press day of the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show.  The theme of this year's competition, RoboCar of 2057, asked eight automotive design studios in California to form their vision of the future by depicting a vehicle that incorporates artificial intelligence engineered to make life easier and more attractive to consumers 50 years from now. Designers entered two-dimensional renderings and concept descriptions predicting how the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence will integrate into the automobile to make life safer, more practical and attractive, and the entries were judged by multi-discipline design professionals who selected the winner based on its originality of creative concept, integration of robotics and level of adaptation to a variety of environmental conditions and consumer needs.

Zonda Cinque Roadster revealed

Pagani has released the final Zonda - the Zonda Cinque Roadster We already know how rigid the Zonda is from the Zonda F Roadster, so Pagani haven’t had to add half a ton of iron girders to the Cinque to compensate for chopping the top off. So you will still have a car that can deliver 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds from its 678bhp V12 Mercedes-sourced engine, and on up to almost 220mph. Just like the Coupe Cinque, only five Cinque Roadsters will be built (Cinque – Five – gettit?!) and each will set back their lucky owner €1.1 million + tax.

Audi unveils armored A8L Security

While unveiling the Allroad E-Tron Shooting Brake at the Detroit Auto Show, Audi also quietly debuted the A8L Security version of its new range-topping sedan this week, armored to the highest level of ballistic protection for passenger cars. The A8L Security is based on the facelifted version of Audi's third-generation A8 sedan, and this armored version will be available both with Audi 4.0 TFSI V8 engine and the 6.0-liter W12. Audi set out to design the current A8L with building an armored version in mind, as opposed to the first-generation A8 of the 1990s which was not offered in Security specification until very late in the product cycle.