Needle Bearings 29-20063 on 2040-parts.com

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.

Ford recalls 2013 Escape, Fusion

Ford Motor Co. is recalling about 89,000 2013 Ford Escape crossovers and Fusion sedans with 1.6-liter engines that may overheat and cause fires. Ford estimates that the voluntary recall covers about 73,320 Escapes and 15,833 Fusions in the United States and Canada.

BMW and Pininfarina to show Gran Lusso Coupé concept at Villa d'Este

BMW and Pininfarina have collaborated on a concept car – the Gran Lusso Coupé – for the 2013 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este. Previewed in these teaser images, the gloriously glamorous-sounding Gran Lusso (lusso being Italian for ‘luxury') appears to fuse BMW iconography – the front fender vent, Hofmeister kink DLO and horizontal rear lamp treatment – with a little more Latin flair with a rocker that flicks up the rear lamp and joins the shoulder line. The full-width rear lamps also promise to be suitably exotic.