Lorenzo Ramaciotti to head Chrysler and Lancia design

Lorenzo Ramaciotti, current head of design at Fiat Group, has been tasked with leading the design of future Chrysler and Lancia products in a bid to more than double the sales figures of the newly collaborated brands. The 63-year-old former Pininfarina designer – credited to some of the most beautiful Italian machinery of the modern era – has been asked by Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler Group LLC, to create a common styling language for the two brands that wouldn't look out of place in Detroit or Milan. Ramaciotti has made it clear that badge-engineering isn't going to be the future for the two brands and is hoping to inject a unique, but global flavor, into the two brands.

One Lap of the Web: Humvees, abandoned Ferraris and a Volvo collection

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Auto Blog drives a military Humvee that's fully armored for duty in combat zones, weighing in at 14,400 pounds.

Aston Martin Rapide: The Movie

Aston Martin Rapide: The Movie Last February Aston Martin decamped en-masse to the Iberian Peninsula to play PR jollies with the new Aston Martin Rapide. First stop on the tour was Valencia, where the world’s media gathered at Aston Martin’s expense to eat, drink, grab a few rays and fit in a drive or three in the first Aston Martin four door in a generation. No doubt a good time was had by all, and we got a few stories out of it.