Who is the greatest car designer at work today?

6 August 2012 update: Click here for the full CAR design power list story - from CAR magazine August 2010 issue It's a classic pub banter for anyone with a drop of petrol in their veins: who is the greatest car designer? Stylists are the rock stars of the car industry, the ones who bring to life the metal boxes that transport you and I around our daily lives. The new August 2010 issue of CAR Magazine, out on Wednesday 21 July, reveals the CAR Top 30, as we count down the most influential, successful and downright talented designers in the auto industry.

Audi S1 at Paris

The Audi S1 will have a Paris Launch (A1 Wörthersee Concept pictured) It’s getting on for a year since we reported that – despite some saying it wouldn’t happen – Audi were planning at least a warm version of the A1 and had on the drawing board the Audi S1 to take on the MINI Cooper. So it’s not a shock that we hear Audi are planning on bring the S1 along to Paris for a reveal before getting the S1 on the roads by the second quarter of 2011. Expect the usual Audi S bits in the mix  - bigger wheels, fettled suspension, beefed-up brakes, body kit – and power in the S1 to come from the S/C turbo 1.4 TSI found in the VW Polo GTI, although the S1 may just get a tweaked version of the engine as befits its higher standing in the VW hierarchy with a bit more than the 178 horses the Polo GTI manages.

Sergio Marchionne wants to build Mazda in Fiat & Chrysler plants

Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne wants to build Mazda cars in Fiat and Chrysler plants around the world. When Alfa Romeo and Mazda revealed last week that they would be developing a new small roadster together – well, Alfa Romeo would take the next generation MX-5 and sculpt on a new body to make a new Alfa Spider – we suggested Mazda would be better of getting Fiat to build their cars. It seems Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne thinks the same.