Every boy needs his down time [Especially this one]. Hundred-hour work weeks, daily four-hour meetings, 1,000 weekly emails, infeasible amount of articles to write a day, constant state of jet lag… The eons of activity in my head are busier than Toyota’s legal offices. This kid’s just asking for one simple thing: Heat. Lots of it. Will be heading to sun-drenched, tan-conducive, and impossibly secluded Mustique to wash away my anxiety with blue water and white sand [Instead of motor oil, for once]. Need not fret, much like Saab, I will be back. Wish me secure hammocks, tall glasses of alcoholic beverages and Prius Harmony dreams. -AM

Tonight we talk the future of car design with Bob Boniface, Director of Crossover Exterior Design and Global Electric Vehicle Design. Bob was the design director on the Chevy Camaro concept, but most recently his work can be found on the forthcoming Volt. We’ll be asking how designing an electric vehicle is different from an internal combustion vehicle and whether cars should be designed with a global audience in mind.

We’ll be getting into those issues, plus a discussion of this week’s news including the Toyota hearings and Fritz Henderson’s reappointment at GM. John McElroy’s in studio as usual as well as David Welch of BusinessWeek and Bloomberg and Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist.

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Having a parent that traveled back and forth to Japan as a child had their benefits: He brings back with him Anime Betamax tapes covered in Daily Yomiuri newspapers, those kept me busy for hours [Both hardware and print]. Who can forget Daimos’ heart-rending Romeo and Juliet love story and the way they kept screaming to the heavens: Richard!!!… Erika!!! Arousing plotlines, attractive heroes and a transforming fourteen-wheel lorry. Thanks for the schoolday memories pops!

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Less than a month after extending it’s contract to sell the dune-hopping HUMMER brand to Tengzhong, the General has announced that it has stopped the deal and will wind down all production. Gloomy day for Louisiana and Indiana where the current lineup is assembled, as well as for those who assembled shrines in honour of the illustrious all-caps trademark. Dedicated to “The Beast,” I give you the best HUMMER TV spot [Naturally, from the 90's] that I know of. The deal may have been, but the legend can “never be stopped.”

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Smoke and vertigo do not aid in visibility. So it’s best to be extra cautious when going ’round circles, those nasty curbs don’t automatically move out of the way like rally spectators. Watch this fox hop.

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In typical German fashion, a designer [Audi AG's Senior Designer Achim Badstubner, in this case] elaborates every line of a vehicle [The A7 Sportback Study, in this case] in meticulous detail. No line is spared, from the wheel-supported column to the sill-to-bumper expression, it’s all been painstakingly thought of by people who haven’t seen sunlight in the duration of the vehicle’s design process. The outcome, however, is as gorgeous as Herr Badstubner’s golden Fabio-esque hair. Will Audi sell 5,000 of these a year?

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