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Ford's J Mays feels vindicated by Fusion reception

It's hard to think back now, but the same man overseeing the design of the 2013 Ford Fusion also presided over a rather lackluster period in Ford design, highlighted by vehicles like the Five Hundred and Freestyle. With the redesigned Fusion receiving high praise, J Mays tells Automotive News that he feels vindicated from criticisms suggesting he's not a daring enough designer.
When Mays took over as lead of design in 1997, he admits to having quite an ego ("My head would barely fit through the door some days. I've long since gotten over myself") and the workload to match. With the Blue Oval's portfolio full of premium brands like Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo at that point, along with the bread-and-butter Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, Mays certainly had quite the challenge.
It was in the mid-2000s that Mays took over just the premium brands, and took on the new title of Chief Creative Officer. At the time, Mays endured some criticism for looking backwards to retro styling, rather than setting a new standard for American car design - criticism that Mays says he is free from with the all-new Fusion.

Last original Aston Martin DBS found in barn headed to auction

There's still big money in auctioning off barn finds. For example, the relatively tattered 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider from the Baillon Collection is now the highest priced 250 GT ever after its recent sale for $18.5 million. UK auction house Coys is hoping to hit a similar goldmine with its upcoming offer of the final, original Aston Martin DBS ever made. This dinged and rusty 1972 DBS in a shade called Dubonnet Rosso rolled off the assembly line as the last of its type in September 1972. These models were meant for the Aston driver looking for a slightly larger GT car, and they sported a 4.0-liter inline-six. This one also has an automatic transmission and 40,000 miles indicated on the odometer. Unfortunately, it has been sitting in a barn in Surrey, England, since 1980. As is plainly obvious, this Aston Martin is far from perfect with busted windows and missing trim pieces. Stuffing straw in the open portions of it is probably taking the ratty look a bit too far, though. Still, the auction house estimates the final DBS to sell for between 25,000 and 40,000 pounds ($38,000-$61,500) when it crosses the block at the Royal Horticultural Society on March 10. A practically perfect 1970 example once driven by Roger Moore fetched the equivalent of $900,000 in 2014. THE ULTIMATE BARN FIND 02/03/15 from COYS The last original Aston Martin DBS to come off the production line has been found in a barn in Surrey and will be auctioned by international auctioneers COYS in London on March 10th. The car was discovered by Chris Routledge, the Managing Partner of the auction house, and is one of the features of COYS 'Spring Classics' auction at the Royal Horticultural Society. Aston Martin Mayfair is hosting the barn find car for a week before the event takes place. Chris Routledge said: "This is the ultimate barn find and an important part of Aston Martin's history. It has been sitting in a barn since 1980 and now needs to be brought back to its former glory." He added: "The windows are broken, the interior trim is missing and its rusty, but it's all there and there has been huge interest from collectors around the world.

All-new Aston Martin Vantage turns up the volume

The Aston Martin Vantage is the storied British marque's volume car. And with the unveiling today of an all-new model, that volume just got turned up. "The new car starts where V12 Vantage, not V8, left off," says Miles Nurnberger, Aston's head of exterior design, as he walks us around the production car in an intimate advance viewing at the brand's rural UK headquarters. He is referring to the top-of-the-line, end-of-the-run, 12-cylinder, stick-shifted, spoiler-bedecked analog anachronism that was a limited-edition sendoff for the outgoing car, which had been on sale for more than a dozen model years. (To say that the previous Vantage was long in the tooth is a reckless overestimation of the lifespan of teeth.) From a purely visual perspective, we cannot argue with him. The new Vantage is immediately recognizable as an Aston Martin — with the signature hill-climb grille, sensuously crisp hood, mesomorphic flanks, squinting greenhouse and tucked tail. But the car can almost be heard, seething, with one's eyes. First off, the hue the brand has selected as a launch color, Lime Essence, looks like ionized absinthe. Additionally, the car is rimmed along its ground-hugging nether regions, from chin to rear, in a be-pronged sinew of starkly contrasting polished carbon-fiber aero effects. It sneers menacingly through narrowly horizontal, selachian eyes. It flashes a triangular carbon burgonet on each cheek, armor potent enough to ward off a Napoleonic cuirassier. And its rear is a war of stark bladelike protrusions, like the final battle sequence in a chop-socky movie. "If the DB11 is a gentleman," Nurnberger explains, "the Vantage is a hunter." Its nose is to the ground, scanning the distance for something to trounce." "It's the color of a predator in nature," explains Aston's straight-talking CEO, Andy Palmer. "Look at a wasp. Its colors warn, stay away." Not drawing the ire of other motorists is, in our opinion, one of the chief advantages of driving an Aston, especially versus some of its flashier (Italian) competitors. Apparently, Aston is aware of this and also offers the new Vantage in a more subdued palette and trim. We'd spec ours in a more traditional color, like grayish Hardly Green, with satin titanium trim and body-color zygomatic implants.