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IDSA's 3D-printed car design contest gets underway

Aspiring designers have the chance to see their 3D-printed car designs launched down a miniature model of a ski jump and crash in the Launch Day 2013 competition due to take place at the 2013 IDSA conference, which runs from 21-24 August. Up to five designs can be entered for free until 12 August in the competition, organized by The Industrial Designers Society of America. All submissions will then be judged for both aesthetics and for "using unique attributes of 3D printing" which will whittle them down to just 10 designs that will be printed before the launch.

Spy photog Brenda Priddy gets a turn in front of the camera lens

Why would anyone be willing to spend more than two months every summer crisscrossing the desert in the Southwest? Well, if you're spy photographer Brenda Priddy, it's because you're hunting Rabbits, and sports cars, and SUVs and occassionally minivans. Priddy, whose work appears here at autoweek.com and in AutoWeek magazine as well as in our sister publication Automotive News and other outlets, took a turn in front of the lens recently.

Top Gear 'for inner nine-yea-old'

THE BOSS of BBC hit Top Gear says the presenters' childish antics are a success because they are a "release valve" for the increasing stresses of our working lives. Executive producer Andy Wilman said the programmes helped viewers to reconnect with their nine-year-old selves because life for adults is "bloody hard". In an interview with Radio Times, he also bemoaned the constraints of the workplace, which could be seen as a swipe at the strict levels of compliance which apply to BBC TV shows.