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AutoWeek's Keith Crain receives Mercedes Star Driver award

AutoWeek editor-in-chief Keith Crain recently received the Star Driver award from Mercedes-Benz, an honor that recognizes an individual who has made great contributions to motorsports and the automobile industry. Crain, shown at left with Geoff Day, director of communications at Mercedes-Benz USA, is the sixth recipient of the Star Driver honor. He joins the ranks of Sir Stirling Moss, John Fitch, Jochen Mass, Jesse Alexander and AutoWeek senior contributing editor Denise McCluggage.

College for Creative Studies Student Exhibition 2007

The College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, Michigan hosted their Annual Student Exhibition in May this year, showing the work of more than 3,500 students. The Transportation Design program - sponsored by Toyota, Nissan and Honda - showed off the work of junior and senior students, each working from individual project briefs set by the automakers. Toyota Motor Sales and the company's Calty Design Center challenged students to create a "bridge" vehicle to pull current Scion customers into the Toyota brand as they mature and experience lifestyle transitions.

BMW Individual program extends to 4-series Coupe and Convertible

Not that long ago BMW Individual was a little-known client program that offered unique materials and equipment to customer specification. While this may sound like a secret menu with an expanded list of interior options, in reality BMW Individual offered just about anything that buyers of Bentley or Rolls-Royce cars could specify. In the 1990s, for example, BMW Individual was the division responsible for completing the interior and exteriors of clients' L7 limousines, customizing such things as the options on the rear center console, fitting blue strobe packages and communications equipment, and creating interiors per customer specifications.