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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.

Aston Martin Vanquish 25 by Callum begins Ian Callum's next act

In June, Ian Callum retired from his post as Jaguar's design boss. In July, the man with an elegant and luxurious public resume extending more than two decades started Ian Callum Design with a few former colleagues. Callum said the full-service design and engineering house would create and comprehensively upgrade vehicles, and that he'd "like to take some of the cars I've designed and maybe redo them a little bit." That initiative starts with the Aston Martin Vanquish 25, a thorough rework of the original Vanquish Callum built from 2001 to 2007, when Ford counted the English brand in its stable.  With the goal being to "make the Vanquish the Grand Tourer for the 2020s," the broad strokes remain — as it should be, seeing how much they still appeal. More than 100 overall detail changes begin with the redesigned front fascia, with a sharper-edged upper grille sitting above a larger lower intake. Projector headlamps give way to four high-intensity LEDs, and the lower fog lamps are replaced by carbon fiber vents to channel airflow to the front brakes. An "intimidating" mien starts with dark grille strakes supplanting the chrome bars of yore, the dark mood continuing with the one-piece carbon fiber window surround and carbon fiber hood vents and fender vent strakes. Gone are the scalloped sills, replaced by convex carbon fiber rockers that blend into the new curve of the lower rear fenders. In back, new taillights rest atop a new bumper that wraps around a large diffuser with integrated exhaust pipes. The cost-cutting Jaguar XK side mirrors — Ford owned Jaguar at the time, too — are gone, newly designed units with built-in turn signals taking their places.  When we drove a 2005 Vanquish in 2015, we wrote that while the greater part of the coupe held up to time, the interior did the opposite. Callum has fixed that, turning the original coupe's blocky, vertical center console into a sloping waterfall unit in carbon fiber. At the top of the center console, a removable Bremont pocket watch. Below that, no more Jaguar switchgear, but an eight-inch media display touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, carbon fiber buttons and aluminum dials. A thinner steering wheel and reshaped paddle shifters sit ahead of a dash cluster designed by watchmaker Bremont.  New front seats with deeper sculpting sit lower in the cabin, clothed in the same cross-stitched Bridge of Weir leather as the rest of the cockpit.

You can't buy an Aston Martin GT8, but you can configure one

Aston Martin launched an online configurator for the Vantage GT8, a limited-edition sports car that will be sold in other markets. The GT8, revealed last month, is arguably the ultimate version of the Vantage to date: all the extreme aero from the previous GT12, but with less mass up front. Its atmospheric 4.7-liter V8 engine churns out 446 horsepower through a six-speed manual or a seven-speed automatic to the rear wheels. The overall package represents the most direct translation we've seen of Aston Martin Racing's victorious racers to the road. And with turbo power enveloping the factory at Gaydon (and the AMG engine workshop in Germany), it may be the last of the great naturally aspirated Astons ever. The company will make 150 copies. The configurator offers a choice of 35 exterior colors, along with eight "accent packs," four special racing-inspired liveries, a quartet of wheel choices, six colors of brake caliper, a whole mess of carbon-fiber exterior components, and an aggressive aero kit. On aesthetic grounds alone, we'd be inclined to leave off those oversized wings, spec most of the carbon trim pieces, go with a subdued shade of green, and just the right amount of red to make it pop. Waste a few minutes (or hours) with the web tool and see how you'd spec yours. Related Video: