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Andy Palmer leaves Renault-Nissan to serve as CEO of Aston Martin

Aston Martin has been without a helmsman since Ulrich Bez stepped down from the chief executive office at the end of last year, stepping back to serve as non-executive chairman in a semi-retired ambassadorial capacity. The British automaker, now on the cusp of a new era, has been running without a CEO since, but has now named Bez's replacement in Andy Palmer.
If you don't recognize the name, you should: Palmer has worked under the Renault-Nissan Alliance for decades now, rising through the ranks to become one of the top executives under Carlos Ghosn. Most recently he was serving as executive vice president of the entire group and chairman of the Infiniti brand, but like Carlos Tavares, who recently left Renault to run Peugeot, Palmer is now embarking on a new mission as CEO of Aston Martin.
Once the transition period is complete at the start of October, Palmer's role as Chief Planning Officer at Renault-Nissan will be assumed by Philippe Klein, who steps up from his current role as executive vice president of product planning for Renault. Read the statements from both companies below.

Club to restore amazeballs Datsun Safari Rally Z

Thanks to the Nissan Restoration Club, a legendary rally car is coming back to life. At the recent Nissan 360 media event, the Japanese automaker announced that its restoration club is bringing the Safari Rally Z back to original running condition. A variant of the Fairlady Z (or Datsun 240Z in the US), the Safari Rally Z has a fastback coupe body and a 215-horsepower inline-six engine. It won East African Safari Rally championships in both 1971 and 1973. The restoration is scheduled for completion this December.
Formed in 2006, Nissan's Restoration Club is comprised of 60 volunteer members who are passionate about Nissan's historic racecars. The club's past restoration projects include the 1964 Skyline racecar and 1947 Tama electric vehicle. Read the press release below for all the details on the latest restoration, and check out the gallery for photos of the Safari Rally Z as well as the 1972 Fairlady 240Z.

Nissan teases Sao Paolo CUV concept, production future likely

Back in 2012 at Brazil's São Paulo Motor Show, Nissan showed off an angular subcompact crossover concept, Extrem, that seemed to to portend the future of the Nissan Juke. Now, the Japanese automaker is teasing an as-yet-unnamed CUV concept for this year's show. The new showcar, set for an October 28 unveiling, is expected to be a closer-to-production version of the Extrem ethos.
Why should we care? Autoblog has reason to believe that this vehicle is under consideration for global distribution. The production Extrem - or whatever it ends up being called - is likely to be positioned size-wise in between the Juke and the recently upsized Rogue, offering more space and still-adventuresome styling, yet at a less expensive price. If accurate, that sounds like the production model will be a fair bit larger than the conceptual Xtrem, which was built atop a modified version of Nissan's V-platform, a model that underpins its March supermini (and speaking of the March, Nissan has also teased what looks to be a sporty concept version of it for the Brazilian show, too).
It's important to note that Nissan already has a bustling small CUV portfolio globally, what with its popular Qashqai / X-Trail models in markets beyond ours. There continues to be persistent rumors that Nissan is considering bringing over the Qashqai, as well, a model seemingly already quite close in size and execution to the Rogue. Despite this, Nissan has shown no hesitation in exploring every niche of the burgeoning CUV market, and while not every derivative has been a success, models like the Juke have rewarded the company's bravery with handsome sales.