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RCA students redesign classic cars for Salon Privé

Eleven postgraduates from the Royal College of Art's Vehicle Design program have redesigned and modernized past Concours-winning cars for the ‘Concours of the Future' design exhibition at this year's Salon Privé in London. Concours of the Future, a first for the Salon Privé, will be showcased on 4 July before being judged the next day by a panel chaired by automotive designer and RCA visiting professor Peter Stevens. The judging panel is made up of Dale Harrow, head of the RCA Vehicle Design program and some of the biggest names in car design: Giles Taylor, director of design at Rolls-Royce; Peter Schreyer, chief design officer at Hyundai and Kia and Peter Horbury, vice president – design at Geely.

Infiniti Q50 to arrive at Geneva 2013 with ‘European Power’

The new Infiniti Q50 – the Infiniti formerly known as the G37 – will make its European debut at Geneva 2013 with a diesel and turbo petrol option. The Infiniti Q50 debuted at the Detroit Auto Show last month and came with the same two engine options the G37 got, namely the 3.7 litre V6 petrol with 323bhp and a 3.5 litre V6 hybrid sporting a total of 355bhp. But that engine lineup isn’t going to be enough to make sales of the new Q50 in Europe, where fuel costs so much more than in Infiniti’s core U.S.

Gorden Wagener on how Mercedes is "moving from a traditional luxury brand to a modern luxury brand"

Mercedes' 'home' design studio in Sindelfingen, Germany is housed in an expansive 30,000-square meter building designed by Renzo Piano. The lobby is unassuming, but we're soon through into what Mercedes' grandly calls 'the Vision Room.' It's here that strategic meetings are held with the firm's board, and where we meet Gorden Wagener, Mercedes' head of design since 2008. It's in the Vision Room that Wagener convinced the Mercedes board of the merits of his overarching design philosophy: 'sensual purity'.