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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.

All 25 James Bond movies ranked only by their cars

There is no shortage of lists ranking the best James Bond movies. Ditto lists about the best or worst James Bond cars. I know, I've written some of them. As such, why not combine the two ideas into one new list that ranks all 25 official James Bond movies based exclusively on their cars, or more accurately their car content. I would then pull from my 25 years of James Bond nerddom plus the excellent "Bond Cars: The Definitive History" and our interview with long-time Bond special effects supervisor Chris Corbould to provide tidbits and factoids about the cars and their roles in the movies. And yes(!), this list now includes "No Time to Die," which impresses by adding plenty of car content to the series. It's now available on Blu-ray and download. To determine the list, I considered the inherent coolness of the cars as well as their importance to Bond, film and car history. I considered their importance to the story as well as the quality/excitement of the chases and scenes they participated in. Finally, I tried my best to divorce the car content from my opinions about the movies in general. That my personal list of best James movies looks nothing like this shows I was at least partially successful.     25. 'Moonraker' There are virtually no cars in "Moonraker." None. Oh, there's a gondola on wheels that makes a pigeon do a double-take, but that's not the same thing as a car. Neither is a golf cart. Or an ambulance. Or a space shuttle.   24. 'From Russia With Love' The literary James Bond mostly drove an ancient Bentley, and "From Russia with Love" is the only film in which it appears. It stays parked and the coolest thing that happens (by 1962 standards) is 007 answers its car phone. Thereafter, we get some old cars (even by 1962 standards) driving around Istanbul and a yellow truck. So yeah. Classic Bond film, a must-watch, just not for its car content.   23. 'Dr. No' History records that the first "Bond car" is the Sunbeam Alpine in "Dr. No." The car itself was literally borrowed from a Miss Jennifer Jackson of 53 Lady Musgrave Road in Jamaica for 10 pounds per day for two days during filming. Also, the stunt where it drove under an excavator blocking the road was entirely conceived because the filmmakers showed up to the road they intended to film on and discovered an excavator blocking the thing. Sadly, those are really the only two things interesting about the Alpine, which is a pretty small and dainty thing by Bond car standards.

Check out Christina Nielsen, the 23-year-old Dane leading the IMSA GTD series

Thanks to hard driving, a good car, consistency, and four podiums this season, 23-year-old Christina Nielsen from Horsholm, Denmark owns the lead of the GT Daytona class in the IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship. It's a slim lead at 199 points, just two points over Christopher Haase and Dion von Moltke, co-drivers of the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS who are second and third and both on 197 points. Nielsen drives the Aston Martin Racing #007 TRG-AMR V12 Vantage GT3 in both USCC and the GTA class of the Pirelli World Challenge. Kuno Wittmer is her co-driver in the USCC, you might remember him as the winner of the driver's championship with the short-lived Chrysler factory team. TRG-AMR recently inducted the Canadian and 17-year-racing veteran to the be the team's number one development driver and be a mentor to Nielsen. Nielsen is the daughter of a Danish sports car racer but she only started racing in 2007 when a friend took her to a kart track. She said she got hooked on that first visit, and in 2011 she finished third in the Karting World Championships. Two years later she won the B Championship at the German ADAC GT Masters with 14 podiums in 16 races, including two victories. Last year she drove in the Patron Endurance Cup and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, this year she graduated to TRG-AMR. There are three races left in the USCC season, and Nielsen said she likes the upcoming tracks and the team's chances. You can check out her race-craft in the two videos below. News Source: IMSAImage Credit: Brian Cleary/Getty Images Motorsports Aston Martin Coupe Racing Vehicles Videos uscc