• Rob Melville has been appointed design director at McLaren. Melville joined McLaren Automotive in 2009 as senior designer, rising to the position of the chief designer in 2014. During his time at the company, Melville has worked on the McLaren P1, the evolution of the 12C into the 650S, the 675LT, and was responsible for the Sports Series, which won the “Best of the Best” category in the coveted Red Dot design awards in 2016. Most recently, he led the design of the 720S, the first model in the second-generation Super Series. As design director, his new role makes Melville responsible for further developing the company’s design strategy, philosophy and principles, working with the engineering and manufacturing functions, as well as the customer insights team. Another 14 new models or derivatives are promised under McLaren’s Track22 business plan.
• Alongside the ongoing development of the standard 8 Series, engineers at BMW are also working flat out on the M model. A fully camouflaged, early prototype of the future BMW M8 was unveiled in a driving presentation as part of the support program for the Nürburgring 24-hour race. Classical M features like larger air intakes, modified brakes and a sports exhaust with four tailpipes hint at the significantly boosted power and dynamic potential of the car. “The conception and development of the standard BMW 8 Series and the M model run in parallel,” said Frank van Meel, president of the BMW M Division. “The future BMW M8 will build on the genes of the 8 Series and augments its DNA with added track ability and generous extra portions of dynamic sharpness, precision and agility. It all flows into a driving experience that bears the familiar BMW M hallmarks and satisfies our customers’ most exacting requirements.”
• At the third race weekend of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, Audi customer teams shared the top three positions among themselves. In the main race at Circuit Zolder racetrack in Belgium, Markus Winkelhock and Will Stevens — of the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT — were the first to cross the finish line. For Winkelhock, this marked the next success in the R8 LMS, just one week following his victory in the Nürburgring 24-hour race. The former Formula 1 campaigner Stevens clinched his first ever victory in the Audi R8 LMS. Clemens Schmid and Filip Salaquarda, Stuart Leonard and Robin Frijns perfected the success of the Audi brand in Belgium.
• With customer satisfaction and service as some of the judging criteria, six of the top General Motors (GM) dealers from the Middle East were named as “Grandmasters” — the top honor given to dealers in the GM International region. The six dealers — from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan — were among 116 dealers from 13 markets that received the honor in New York City. Now in its 14th year, the Grandmasters program was created to reward the best dealers in the GM International region. Winners were selected based on customer satisfaction, service, vehicle and parts sales, and facility standards. They were judged on both the quantity and the quality of their operations.
New design director at McLaren
New design director at McLaren
