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Donato Coco Appointed Director of Design for Lotus Group

After his non-publicized departure from Ferrari earlier this year, in which Flavio Manzoni was appointed to take his place, Donato Coco has now resurfaced. Lotus has announced Coco's appointment to Director of Design for Group Lotus starting January 4, 2010. In this newly created role, Coco, an Italian national, will lead all Lotus Design activities for Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.

Jason Castriota to head Saab Design

When Car Design News spoke to Jason Castriota about the new design consultancy he had set up in New York and Turin back in March, the designer told us he was working on a very exciting automotive project that he couldn't talk about at the time. It turns out that automotive project was for Saab, as last week the Swedish automaker announced it had hired Jason Castriota Design to oversee the development of a new generation of Saab products – the first to be completed under the tenure of its new owners, Spyker. Castriota's new appointment marks the shift from Saab's former position – where the brand was an integrated company within GM – to its newfound placement as an independent automaker, with Castriota essentially filling the role previously occupied by Mark Adams, GM Europe's Vice President of Design.

Bertone BAT 11

By Guy Bird Motor Shows 10 March 2008 11:43 What’s new on Bertone’s Geneva Motor Show stand? Italian coachbuilder Bertone might be in deep financial trouble – it didn’t have a stand at the Geneva show – but its styling division, Stile Bertone, revealed an incredible one-off car on the night of the first press day instead at Auto Design Night, a special event for car designers held at city centre night club La SIP. The stunningly streamlined BAT 11 doesn’t take its odd name from the bat-like rear wings, but because BAT stands for ‘Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica’ in Italian, the ‘11’ indicating that it is the fourth in a series of one-off Bertone designs for Alfa Romeo following on from the BAT 5, 7 and 9 from the mid-1950s.