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Citroën designers: Design students have 'golden opportunity'

Today's car design students "have got a fantastic opportunity in a very different world," say Citroën designers. Though the automotive industry has been suffering in many regions in the current economic climate, the next generation of car designers "have got a fantastic opportunity," says Andrew Cowell, Senior Design Manager at Citroën, in conversation with Car Design News at the Royal College of Art, London. "The industry will evolve quite a lot, and these guys (the students on the postgraduate Vehicle Design course) will come out into a very different world." "They'll start in a very interesting period", says Alexandre Malval, Citroën Design Director and himself a graduate from the RCA course.

Toyota FT-86 leaks out. Well, FT-86 with Modellista extras

Toyota FT-86 leaks out (click picture for full size) It’s no real surprise that the first photos of the Toyota FT-86 in production trim have leaked out from a printed brochure ahead of the official reveal at the Tokyo Motor Show next month. After all, printers have a lead time to get hard copy brochures printed and there’s nothing that leaks quite as much as a printer with a scoop on his desk. So we get treated to what appear to be the first proper pictures of Toyota’s FT-86 (for the Subaru BRZ just add Subaru badges in your head), and it looks quite bit more aggressive than we’d expected.

Infiniti sets up global HQ in Hong Kong

Nissan Motor Co. is establishing a new global headquarters for its Infiniti luxury brand in Hong Kong, in a nod to the surging sales it expects from China. Infiniti, which is not sold as a separate brand in Japan, is currently run out of Nissan's worldwide office in Yokohama, Japan.