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Video: Aston Martin design chief on new Rapide

CAR recently caught up with Aston Martin design chief Marek Reichman – on board one of the first Aston Rapides to be built. You can watch our video interview in the player below, as CAR contributor Guy Bird interviews Reichman. He talks about the new Rapide, and why it shouldn't be seen as a rival for a Merc S-class or even a Porsche Panamera, the crazy new Cygnet – a Toyota iQ by Aston Martin – and the new million-pound One-77 hypercar.

McLaren managing director on leave, not expected in Geneva

McLaren Automotive's U.S.-born managing director, Antony Sheriff, is expected to be absent from the launch of the P1 hypercar at Geneva next week because he is on extended leave from the company. No reason for Sheriff's absence has been given, although McLaren is at pains to point out that he is “still employed as McLaren Automotive's managing director.” Rumors were circulating about Sheriff's absence from Woking in January, but company spokesmen back then stressed that he was still employed by McLaren and would unveil the P1 at Geneva. Despite those assurances, sources had reported earlier in the year that Sheriff “hadn't been seen in his office” for some days.

Motorway pile-up 'like pinball'

DRIVERS involved in a fatal pile-up on a motorway entered a "wall of blackness" before suffering numerous impacts as if they were "a pinball machine", a jury heard. Seven people died and 51 were injured after 34 cars collided when a section of the M5 in Somerset was suddenly "engulfed in thick smog". Anthony and Pamela Adams, Maggie and Michael Barton, Malcolm Beacham, Terry Brice and Kye Thomas died in the incident, on November 4 2011.