Volvo Penta Ecm Map Sensor Bracket # 3857815 on 2040-parts.com

Cars, Culture and the City

When you think of American cities associated with the car it is Los Angeles of course that leaps first to mind, thanks mostly to Hollywood, and Detroit second. But New York turns out to have been vital in the history of car design, as I found researching an exhibition Cars, Culture and the City at the Museum of the City of New York as guest curator over the last few months, working with the museums curator architecture and design, Donald Albrecht. The show has just opened, on March 25.

MIT develops self-transforming materials that behave 'like robots without robots'

A cross-disciplinary research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a suite of programmable materials, including carbon fiber, printed wood grain, textile composites, rubbers and plastics, that self-transform when exposed to an external stimulus. Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, presented a TED talk on 4D printing in 2013, where he demonstrated how a flat sheet of material could effectively build itself when exposed to water, like a robot without a robot. Following positive feedback from industries including aviation, automotive and manufacturing, his lab has been working on developing materials that change according to different activation sources, including heat, light, and air pressure, in addition to water – all of which have automotive relevance.

Ford Focus ST (2012) at the Frankfurt motor show

On the eve of the 2011 Frankfurt motor show, Ford has unveiled two ST models, the Focus ST hot hatch and the Focus ST Wagon. Ford unveiled a bright orange Focus ST concept at the Paris motor show 12 months ago, but this 247bhp car is the real thing and will go on sale in April 2012. What do we know about the new Ford Focus ST?