Kuryakyn Braided Grips - Black/red 6331 on 2040-parts.com

Exclusive: Laurens van den Acker to replace Patrick le Quément at Renault

The wheels of change are continuing to turn within the automotive design industry, with yet another new appointment being made at the director level. According to industry insiders, Laurens van den Acker is set become the new Design Director at Renault when Patrick le Quément retires later this year. One of the most pre-eminent car designers in the world, Patrick le Quément began his design career at Simca, worked at Ford for 17 years and did a brief stint at Volkswagen before taking the top design job at Renault.

Mercedes E63 AMG Drifting at Brooklands

The 525bhp Mercedes E63 AMG gets blatted round the Brooklands track in the video below When you produce a mid sized saloon car with a great big 6.2 litre V8 you can be pretty sure that when journalists get the chance to play they’re going to be a little exuberant with your car. So why not get in first? That seems to be Mercedes thinking with the video they’ve produced of the E63 AMG strutting its stuff at a soaking wet Brooklands track.

Kia Carens MPV (2012) first official pictures

Kia has taken its compact family wagon, the Carens back to the drawing board with the release of the all-new 2012 model, bringing it up-to-date with Kia’s current design direction.   The Carens is the last model in Kia’s line up to receive the ‘tiger nose’ facelift under the direction of chief designer Peter Schreyer, best known for designing the Mk 1 Audi TT.   The revised Carens takes on a sharper, more ‘athletic’ shape than the former chunkier model, offering a more practical, cab-forward take on the sportier looking new Ceed on which it is based.