Rapid(e) end of sexy Aston Martin ?

If you find this blog from Google (most probably), there is nothing going with Aston Martin! However, everything is not going very well either. Why? Recently I was reading about Ferrari’s new model 458 and 599 GTO. And I noticed, like many other people Ferrari is offering something totally different with every new model. Actually even the new variation of current models have something in different. Or more improved is the better word for that.

However, I cannot say the same with Aston Martin. Since Vanquish, I did not realize a serious technological in Aston Martin models. Sure; they are offering better quality, better design and more technology but not that much. DB9 and DBS; they are too much similar! Their interior, their gadgets, buttons and many other things. I was expecting to see double clutch auto or 8 speed auto gearbox. The main differentiating point of DB9 and DBS is their price! Yes, DBS is a replacement of Vanquish but it looks too much similar to DB9.

And I am checking Aston Martin website often to see something new about their cars and I was disappointed for a long time, until the Rapide! The four door Aston Martin is the best Aston Martin. Sorry Clarkson! It has two extra doors and may not reflect the Aston Martin heritage like DB9 but it is a harmony of contemporary technology with sophisticated heritage. And that’s what Aston Martin should do! Combination of past and future. The Rapide is the flash forward of Aston Martin and telling what the future models can offer! But please, try to engage the double clutch gearbox, even the VW Polo is offering that!

But whatever happens to Aston Martin, it will always be the most sexy car on earth! Not charming, totally sexy!

 

In order; Ferrari 458, Aston Martin DBS, Aston Martin Rapide

 

Pictures were taken from;

Aston Martin and Ferrari Websites

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Rolls Royce in Gumball 3000 : (

Gumball 3000 is not my favourite motoring event. Actually, I don't like the idea of racing on public roads while people are driving without knowing that you are racing. Also the way they dress up the cars! There are always very nice cars in this race; Rolls Royce, Bentley, Bugatti and others. These brands have heritage and unique character but dressing up these cars for like you go to a Halloween party is not looking very nice to me! This is totally objective. Actually, I don't like to modify cars in any way!

A few days ago Gumball 3000 started again and as usual there are many very nice cars. The most pathetic one was the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe. This car is the Rolls Royce's very unique model with an exquisite design and I can clearly state this; Phantom Drophead Coupe is the most elegant, the best looking, the most exquisite car on planet. Every single detail of this car is excellent. However it appeared on Gumball 3000 in pink colour! Like this, you can see from the picture. This is the time, words became senseless. You can watch this on 03:08 from the Youtube video.

Picture are taken from;

Rolls Royce Website

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Clean Bentley

Bentley Mulsanne, nowadays it is one of the very hot news in automotive industry. Nearly every week, we received news announcement about Arnage replacement, Mulsanne. Bentley's new car with 6.75lt engine. Yes, still Bentley has the pre-historic engine! I guess they do not wish to send away this engine. In couple of year, VW will manage to develop four hundred horsepower from 1.4lt engine and Bentley would still be using fifty year old 6.75lt V8. That's a nice engine but please, we are living in 2010! Even the new Rolls Royce Ghost has a new engine.

Anyway, let's move from engine to something else. Bentley's brand identity is based on luxury, technology, exquisite quality. You can understand this on their website, in their dealers across the world, on their cars and even in their press releases. So, you would be expecting perfect quality in every single detail, and Bentley is very good doing that expect in one place. Bentley cars are manufactured excellent in details, I don't have any doubts about this. But I noticed something very interesting and I am bit disappointed. The press release video from Bentley which is about leather craft in Mulsanne. This is a very short time frame, the camera zooms to employee's hand and the wood, then we see that his nails are that not clean! Rolls Royce never misses this kind of detail, even Mercedes or BMW. And Bentley suppose to do the same like other brands, because these videos are played whole over the world. Everything on that video should reflect their brand identity.

So, this minor details can be understood very differently in some markets. Each market has its own cultural underpinning and their customs, in some markets employee are reflecting the product and the brand. And an employee whoc is not clean enough might me reflecting an adverse image for the brand and for the product. Like; if he is not paying attention to cleanness, maybe he is not paying attention to my future Bentley’s cleanness.

Minor details make major differences ;)

Time frame for the snapshop: 02:48

Pictures and Video are taken from;

Bentley Website

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What is Countryman?

The Mini! Excellence of repackaging :) Personally I never liked the Mini. It is a very well made and a very nice car, it is combining the Mini heritage with sophisticated technology. BMW made a very good job and never ruined the heritage. However, I never like the Mini :( Despite its unique characteristics, it was a brand which is not very close to me. This is totally emotional! In my opinion, Alfa Romeo MiTo and Fiat 500 are totally much better looking cars than the Mini. Also Fiat 500 is slightly better than Mini while packing the heritage with contemporary automotive world. Especially the price. Mini is a overpriced car, that's absolutely clear. You pay too much money for a small car. Macro priced, micro sized!

As usual BMW, transposed its product extension strategy to Mini, and Mini introduced the Clubman which looks like a Ford Transit from the back. It could not manage to achieve a success like normal Mini but some people bought it. And Mini followed the popular culture in automotive business and design a Mini SUV which is totally pointless. Yes, there is no competitor in this segment and it will collect the whole potential customers, if they are existed! Until now everything is fine, normal German style extension strategy in a British car.

But the most stupidest thing is, Mini Countryman (SUV) is not four wheel drive! Yes, it will be front wheel drive and you can have the four wheel drive only with S model. Very nice! A very expensive SUV which is not a proper SUV! I know, there are some SUV like this on market; they are only front wheel drive but they are not asking a price which is more expensive than an island! Those front wheel drive SUVs are cheap! This Clubman front wheel drive partial SUV will a very interesting car from Mini.

Actually more interesting than Apple iPad. Despite its pointless disadvantages, like Apple iPad, some people will just buy because it looks nice. Nicer than Mini Clubman and people will buy this weird SUV just to own it :)

Pictures are taken from;

Mini and Apple Websites

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iRing, sorry that's Bull Ring!

For last three weeks I am Birmingham, UK. A demand of popular culture, when we move to a new city, we have to visit the shopping malls before the museums :) So I did the same and I end up in Bull Ring. This shopping centre has a very distinctive architecture; shopping mall is not limited by roads or anything else instead, it became a part of environment. Some part of the Bull Ring is under the road some part is over the road. Actually it is a bit confusing, when you first visit you cannot realize where you are and you will start thinking, did I visit this part. It is a very nicely designed and a bit confusing shopping mall. Until you get use to it, you might get lost or never visit some of it parts.

When I was confused in Bull Ring, I remembered the time I got confused in BMW’s first generation iDrive interface. Actually it was suppose to help drive to access menus and settings very easily without any confusion but you have to be either ten years old or you have to have a master degree of engineering. If you cannot satisfy these two criteria, you will not able to use iDrive. So BMW realized the pointless iDrive technology and revised many times. Now, it is more usable and less confusing. But why BMW waited for such a long time to understand their mistake.

This is the same with designing a building, it might look very nice and unique but when you wish to use it, it may not be as exciting as you imagined. Actually, making a revision in a building is much much harder than making a revision in a software.

Pictures are taken from;
BMW and Bullring Websites

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Enzo Ferrari: The Movie

Recently the movie business started to release movies related with brand creators. Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer; Valentino Italian fashion designer and Anne Wintour, Vogue's legendary editor.

Sure, these movies are not like block buster ones, which you can watch in everywhere on earth but they are effective to understand who they are and what their brands are.

Founder of legendary Italian brand Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari has a movie also. It was shot in 2002 but nobody knows it. Actually it is quite hard to find its DVD even on internet. I don't know why! And even in Ferrari Store's web site, there is nothing called Enzo Ferrari Movie. They helped to make this movie but they are not selling the DVD, this is quite unusual for a company which is even selling paper weights with Ferrari logo.

This movie is explaining how the Ferrari brand was born and what sacrifices Enzo Ferrari suffered. It is not about just cars or engines, it is about a person's life that is devoted to create a car. After this movie, I started to interpret Ferrari brand in a different way. I could see what is underneath this heritage. Hopefully we could still see the trace of this heritage in every Ferrari car and Enzo Ferrari's sacrifices achieved the success.

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No Comment: Tesla Model S - Maserati GranTurismo

Maserati GranTurismo and new Tesla Model S

Pictures are taken from;

Maserati and Worldcarfans Websites

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Fuel Cell, this is real cell :)

For long time, I was waiting to see a hydrogen car. I know they don't very different rather than the normal ones but I would like to see how it drives and how it looks like. Hopefully today I saw three of them at the same time. They weren't production models but at least they were hydrogen powered cars.

They were looking very nice for prototype and actually looking better than many Toyota cars! However the interior is a total catastrophe! Of course, it is pointless to expect to see very high quality interior from an university prototype. These cars have a range of 160 km. And very silent! Actually they are too silent and you may not even notice that a hydrogen car is approaching to you.

Finally, I really don't know where they fill up the car. It is sure that, they are filling up them somewhere but I didn't see.

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