Winners announced in Car Design News-Opel/Vauxhall interactive design competition

We are pleased to announce the winners of the interior and exterior phases of the Car Design News-Opel/Vauxhall interactive design competition. Chiayuan Lu of the University of Coventry, England, is revealed as the winner of the interior design phase, and Victor Uribe of IED in Turin, Italy, is the winner of the exterior design phase. They were announced at a ceremony held today, 2 March 2011, during the second press day of the Geneva motor show.

Who's Where: Chrysler's new Design VPs

Following the recent acquisition of a majority stake in the Chrysler Group by Cerburus comes the announcement that there will be a reshuffling at Chrysler's North American design offices.  Joseph Dehner and Brandon Faurote will be taking over Vice President positions at the product design offices in Auburn Hills, replacing Thomas Tremont and David McKinnon. Joseph Dehner will be replacing David McKinnon as Vice President for Small, Premium and Family Vehicle Design on June 1, 2007, moving up from his position as Director of Truck Exterior and Interior Design.

Mercedes-Benz SLS prepped to go GT3 racing

Mercedes-Benz AMG pulled the wraps off its new race car on Monday in Oaxaca, Mexico, scene of a commemoration of Mercedes' victory in the 1952 Carrera Panamericana. The new SLS GT3 is a modified Mercedes-Benz SLS intended to meet FIA homologation requirements for the GT3 class in series throughout the world. While it's not known what the production car will look like when it starts going to customers either this fall--according to the press release--or "before the start of the 2011 racing season," according to AMG's Thomas Rappel, the prototype shown in Oaxaca had a full roll cage, a new front skirt with splitter, rear diffusers and an enormous rear wing.