Dubbed “American Icon”, the glittering MINI is the work of CrystalArt and it’ll be on display at the upcoming National Stationery Show, May 20-23, at NY City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

The car features over one-million Swarvoski crystals in 50 different shades of color to represent the 50 states. Each stone was meticulously placed by hand and took four people almost 6 months to complete.

The car depicts America’s most revered iconic scenery and symbols including The Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, The White House, The American Flag and the Eagle, among others.

It’s been 60 years of Lotus, and in that time the British cottage automaker has produced a bevy of light, tossable cars that capture the essence of spirited driving.

Now, Lotus has teamed up with Winsor Bishop to bring you this luxurious car which has 164 diamonds (in total), studded in the rev counter, speed dials and many other places. The £111,000 worth of diamonds are then highlighted by using LED lights.

On the outside the diamond anniversary Europa gets a unique paint finish that combines a high gloss black base with tiny glass flakes to give the car the appearance that it is being showered with diamonds.

Voting period for Peugeot design contest 2008 is on the go !

For the fifth time Peugeot is holding their futuristic design competition. Last year the Flux, designed by 20-year old Romanian Mihai Panaitescu, won the competition and was built as a concept car and eventually shown at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show.

This year the competition was themed as “Imagine a Peugeot for the Megalopolis of Tomorrow”. The participants should take into consideration Peugeot’s stylistic codes and their projects must contain the following four aspects: environmental awareness, social harmony, interactive mobility and economic efficiency.

Entries were submitted in July and a jury has selected their 30 favorite designs so that the a popularity vote (15 August through 15 September 2008) can be held on the internet.

A top ten will be revealed on 16 September 2008. At the Paris Motor Show on 2 October 2008 Peugeot will announce the winner of the competition so that the concept can go into development for a 2009 Shanghai Motor Show in China global debut.

And now the most interesting part… The finalists with their concept car designs are presented below. Just vote for the concept car you most like on the official Peugeot site. In a week we will get to know the best 10 finalists.

* * *
Title: SVP
Author: Mickael Soubabère
Location: France

* * *
Title: Module
Author: Cristian Fabio Di Filippo
Location: Argentina

* * *
Title: Peugeot 888
Author: Oskar Johansen
Location: Norway

* * *
Title: Streamlife
Author: Liang Tian
Location: China

* * *
Title: Opus
Author: Soheil Ghotbi Ravandi
Location: Iran

* * *
Title: Rugir (Roar)
Author: Onur Guvenc
Location: Germany

* * *
Title: OPENA
Author: Jaroslaw Koziel
Location: Poland

* * *
Title: Peugeot Stylight
Author: Ognyan Bozhilov
Location: Bulgaria

* * *
Title: Peugeot Pure
Author: Pierlot Damien
Location: Belgium

* * *
Title: Peugeot Rayo
Author: Ivan Kraljević
Location: Croatia

* * *
Title: MoVille
Author: Woo-Ram Lee
Location: France

* * *
Title: Ego
Author: Emre Yazici
Location: Turkey

* * *
Title: Globe
Author: Varun Gopinath
Location: India

* * *
Title: Seed by Peugeot
Author: Yann Terrer
Location: France

* * *
Title: OXO
Author: Lou Ke
Location: China

* * *
Title: P.R.O.
Author: Ke Guo
Location: China

* * *
Title: Peugeot Alegro
Author: Alexandre Raad
Location: Brazil

* * *
Title: xtreet
Author: Esteban Peisci
Location: Argentina

* * *
Title: Peugeot 50x
Author: Gustavo Hernandez
Location: Colombia

* * *
Title: Peugeot Blade
Author: Ying Hui Choo
Location: Singapore

* * *
Title: Peugeot Magnet
Author: Tolga Metin
Location: United States

* * *
Title: Facile
Author: Thierry Dumaine
Location: France

* * *
Title: [E cube]
Author: Seung Hoon Yoo
Location: Republic of Korea

* * *
Title: RD
Author: Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar
Location: Colombia

* * *
Title: Echo
Author: Sun Rujun
Location: China

* * *
Title: GALapagos
Author: Igor Yastrebov
Location: Russian Federation

* * *
Title: Peugeot Verde
Author: Michael Witus Schierup
Location: Denmark

* * *
Title: Peugeot 1009 Concept
Author: Edwin van der Mark
Location: Netherlands

* * *

Title: Vision
Author: Shinji Nukumi
Location: Japan

Among the display of leisure vehicles and campers on the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles stand at Europe’s largest recreational vehicle show that starts in Düsseldorf, Germany this weekend will be an interesting Caddy Topos Sail design concept which takes its nautical theme to the extreme of having a wooden boat deck on its roof.

The Caddy Topos Sail design concept, based on the smallest model in the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle van range, uses design cues from classic yachts and has its multi-functional roof covered with wooden decking surrounded by aluminium roof rails.

The deck also turns up to make a lounge chair over the Caddy, but the most appealing component of this concept would be the wooden ladder built into the glass that makes the roof accessible, and to complete the design theme there are wooden inserts along the side of the vehicle and in the rear bumper.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles created the design study as part of the celebrations of 20 years of the California camper.

It’s perfect for all you guys who like chill out by the deck after a long drive !

The Rolls Royce Hyperion, that we introduced to you two montgs ago, made its world debut last week at the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach.

The car was designed and built by Pininfarina, commissioned by car collector Roland Hall who wanted a unique Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe.

The private client who already owned a Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe, asked them to create a custom-built car that would evoke the appeal of the sumptuous cars of the 1930s.

This futuristic Ferrari Monza was designed by Iman Maghsoudi and it looks more like a spaceship than a car.

The future cars will be capable of travelling speeds of 300 km/hour, too fast for a human to operate manually as they lack “sufficient concentration” and dexterity. As a result, computers will have to be programmed to drive them.

With the Monza, at slower speeds, the “pilot” sits in a cockpit similar to straddling a motorcycle and has full control. Once the vehicle reaches a predetermined speed, the vehicle changes its shape to become more aerodynamic, and control is taken over by a computer.

It is designed to speed with tail fins that make sure that your Ferrari doesn’t take to the skies at high speeds and it also has a friction reducing technology.
The original Ferrari Monza was one of a series of cars built by the Italian manufacturers in the early 1950s.