Beck/arnley 101-5777 Lower Ball Joint on 2040-parts.com

Whos Where: Ford of Europe reshapes their design department

It was only to be expected that some of the brightest creative forces should follow Martin Smith who joined Ford of Europe from his position as GM Europe Design Director in August this year. Stefan Lamm was a studio chief designer at Opel - he was recently confirmed as Chief Designer Exteriors at Ford. At the same time two new appointments were announced alongside an interesting restructuring of Ford of Europe's design department.

McLaren P1 – Driven by Jay Leno at the Top Gear track (video)

Jat Leno (pictured) drives the McLaren P1 at the Top Gear track at Dunsfold We reported just a few days ago that the McLaren P1 has all but sold out, and one of those buyers is America’s petrolhead in chief, Jay Leno. Even though Jay isn’t short of a few bob, he’s not going to be the wealthiest buyer of a P1 (by far), but his celebrity status has conferred on him something most P1 buyers won’t get – the chance to take to the Top Gear track at Dunsofold in the new P1 with McLaren’s Chris Goodwin (Chief Test Driver) riding shotgun. Prior to the run round Dunsfold, Jay gets a tour of the new P1 production centre (perhaps the cleanest car production centre in the UK) before being whisked off to Dunsfold by helicopter.

BMW i3 (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

The new BMW i3 offers the potential dream ticket of carbonfibre construction and zero tailpipe emissions (not to mention a posh badge) for £25k. It’s an electrically driven city car designed from the ground up to be as eco-friendly as possible, but still a decent drive. The all-new city car's order books will open this summer, with the i3 range officially launching on 16 November.