Troy Lee Designs 2012 Air Helmet on 2040-parts.com

Who's Where: Gert Hildebrand appointed Head of Design at Qoros Auto

Gert Hildebrand, former General Manager of Mini Design, was appointed Head of Design at Qoros Auto in January this year. In his new role, Hildebrand is responsible for overseeing a regeneration of the existing design and styling processes at the joint venture company, a collaboration between Qoros and Israel Corporation, which was founded in 2007. One of many high level designers making the transition to China, Hildebrand is is currently tasked with leading the creation of the new Qoros brand, which was unveiled at a presentation in Shanghai last week.

Spoken street names useful in navigation units, magazine says

If you're in the market for a portable navigation unit, features such as spoken street names and reality view/lane assist are worth the money while traffic information, connected services and voice recognition are not as essential, says Consumer Reports magazine. Less expensive navigation models are even offering the service via which the unit will speak the names of streets or highway numbers rather than telling drivers to merge or turn in a specific direction. Reality view/lane assist is a feature commonly packaged as one that displays three-dimensional views of exits, signs and intersections as well as the best lane to be in for upcoming driving maneuvers.

Audi A7 – Spy Video

We have spy video of the new The Audi A7 (below) The Audi A7 seems to have been coming for a long time now. A swoopy, four-door coupe it’s yet another of Audi’s attempts at niche-filling, and is aimed straight at rivals such as the CLS from Mercedes. We heard rumours that the A7 would make an appearance at the Detroit Motor Show this month – but it didn’t – and the speculation has now moved on to the Geneva Motor Show in March.