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Giugiaro honored in Korean ceremony

Giorgetto Giugiaro has received honors from the South Korean Government for his contribution to the nation's fledgling automotive industry.  In a ceremony in Seoul, Giugiaro received the prestigious 'Order of Merit' from the President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak. The relationship between Italdesign Giugiaro and Korea stretches back to the 1970s, a period of significant growth for the Korean nation, stifled only by its lackluster automotive industry.  It fell to the Italian designer to invigorate an industry that survived on reassembling and rebranding foreign domestic models. Giugiaro's solution was the simple Hyundai Pony.

Porsche engineer Rolf Frech named engineering chief at Bentley

The Porsche-ization of luxury-car maker Bentley moved another step forward on Wednesday as Rolf Frech was named as its engineering chief. Frech, who has been Porsche's director of the complete vehicle engineering group for the past decade, replaces Ulrich Eichhorn, who is set to become head of the VDA, the German auto-industry association. Eichhorn, 50, joined Bentley as engineering chief in 2003 from Volkswagen, where he had been in charge of research and development.

VW Golf GTI concept (2012) first pictures

Volkswagen surprised the Paris motor show attendees with this production-ready Golf GTI concept car shown today. Although dubbed a concept, everything looks and feels like a showroom ready hot hatch. Expect to see the real thing at next spring's 2013 Geneva motor show.