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Nissan opens new design studio in Beijing

Delayed by the deadly earthquake that hit Japan earlier this year, Nissan Motor Co.'s new design center in Beijing finally received a proper opening this week, when global design chief Shiro Nakamura showed off the studio as a new source of ideas for Nissan and Infiniti. Nissan Design China, as the Beijing-based center is known, "is not a studio to just generate ideas for China," Nakamura said in an interview with Car Design News. It's equipped to handle designs of show cars and production cars for both Nissan and Infiniti brands, aimed at customers in China, as well as around the world.

CAR interviews Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo (2011)

Fiat will not sell a stake in Ferrari, Formula 1’s governing body should stop knee-jerk rule changes and Lewis Hamilton is a top driver – those are the views of Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, expressed in conversation with CAR Magazine. CAR’s October 2011 issue – on sale now – contains a VIP tour of Ferrari and interviews with the company’s top brass: president di Montezemolo, Ferrari CEO and engineer Amedeo Felisa and design chief Flavio Manzoni. We covered so many fascinating topics that some great material could have finished up on the cutting room floor.

Video: Michael Mauer on the 991-series Porsche 911

Porsche has released a video featuring its Design Director, Michael Mauer, explaining how he and his team went about redesigning the 911, an ‘automotive, engineering icon' as he describes it. "What we as designers are striving to above all is to optimize the width to height ratio with the result that although the 911's width has not increased, the front axle area has become wider, and we've managed to make the roof a bit lower," Mauer explains via a rather dramatic-sounding voiceover.