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Back to basics for VW, says Walter de Silva

By Adam Towler Motor Industry 25 June 2008 13:01 It was an odd place for an inside line into what future Volkswagens will look like, but when head of VW Group design Walter de Silva invited CAR to the old Fiat Lingotto factory in Turin - now a conference and shopping centre – we could hardly say no. De Silva described VW as being immersed in a 'process of defining their design language' which could be read as ‘we’re still sucking our designer thumbs to see what happens’. Audi, De Silva said, had already been through that process and its design DNA was ‘understood by everyone in the company, right down to the smallest details'.

BMW Zagato Roadster

BMW and Zagato turned heads at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance with its latest collaboration: The BMW Zagato roadster, just months after the unveil of the unveil of their coupé at Villa d'Este. The car, developed in just six months, features a low-set kidney grille – complete with tiny matt-sheen Zagato 'Z' letters – and circular headlamps on a sharply lined contoured hood, while Zagato's signature double-bubble design is seen again on the car and serves to extend the lines of the hood to the rear. Like the coupé version it is again the work of Norihiko Harada, Zagato's Chief Designer.

Audi A7 breaks cover

This is Audi's new A7--the sleek, upmarket liftback previewed by the Sportback concept at the 2009 Detroit auto show. The A7 aims to provide the company with a stylish but practical rival to contemporary four-door luxury cars such as the Jaguar XF and the second-generation Mercedes-Benz CLS. Revealed at a gala presentation in Munich on Monday, the A7 is the second liftback model launched by Audi recently, following the smaller A5.