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Who's Where: Jason Castriota opens own design consultancy

Former Bertone and Pininfarina designer, Jason Castriota, has opened his own design consultancy based in New York and Turin. CDN recently caught up with Castriota - who is currently in New York - and discovered he's already working on a series of projects, despite having not yet officially launched the company. Castriota told us that it had always been his "dream to have my own consultancy in New York", yet what's clearly pleasing him most is the volume of work he's already accrued, without officially launching the firm.

Toyota charity puts boots on the ground in Detroit

For the second year in a row, Toyota has chosen to celebrate the opening of the Detroit auto show with a philanthropic gesture. In order to help homeless women and children in the Detroit area, Toyota's “Walk in my Boots” community project will partner with Moosejaw, a Michigan-based outdoor retailer, to donate new boots to residents of The Salvation Army Denby Center for Children and Family Services in Detroit. Toyota will also be providing a luncheon buffet for the residents when they deliver the boots and donating $10,000 to the facility to help with operations' costs.

BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo (GT) concept unveiled

The BMW 5-Series GT - Due to launch at Frankfurt in September [ad#ad-1] The Germans do love a niche or two. Audi seems to be trying to cover everything from a runaround to a supercar, and Mercedes has gone as far as to build an S-Class people carrier (the R-Class) and a super-luxo-barge (Maybach). But BMW play the game as well – the BMW X6 being a good case in point.