BMW does films, part 3
“Buying a car is not a rational experience, it is an emotional experience.” – Professor Wai Cheng, MIT
(Autoblog via Translogic)
“Buying a car is not a rational experience, it is an emotional experience.” – Professor Wai Cheng, MIT
(Autoblog via Translogic)
“We’re rehearsing for our own future – why not do it as pleasantly as possible?” – Syd Mead, futurist
The second installment of BMW’s films on the future of mobility has just been released and it combines a plethora of things I like including: retrofuturism, cars (obvious) and visionary artist, Syd Mead (who is awesome).
First there was the deployment of a much snazzier design language and now this: Kia has unveiled its SuperBowl commercial, one that gives us aliens and temporal vortex-summoning Mesoamericans. I’d even build an Optima online (update: I have) after seeing something so keyed in to my mind.
(Autoblog)
I love it when BMW goes to the movies. I’m sure you remember their 2001-2002 films starring Clive Owen – most notably “Star” with Madonna in the backseat of an M5. Proving what a difference a decade makes, the newest series of BMW videos, “Wherever You Want To Go,” will be focusing on the future of mobility. From really expensive productions about the BMW lifestyle…to basically the same thing but about green technology and human scale transportation solutions. Anyway, it should be a lot of fun and the videos will be released all throughout February, beginning on the 1st.
(Autoblog)
Made famous by BMW, the concept of the art car has picked up another German manufacturer as participant: Mercedes-Benz. MB sponsored a four car installation entitled Recollection Quartett which places iconic models from the marque inside of sculptures conceived by Frederik Heyman and styled by a trio of fashion designers. All a part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin (where else?).
We need more high-end hot hatches to change our perceptional relationship between size and value, or someday we’ll all be driving performance-chipped diesel pickups…
Over at Jalopnik, Mike Spinelli takes the Audi RS3 on a forbidden North American test drive and comes away with Ten Reasons America Needs the Audi RS3 Sportback. I could add a dozen other hot hatch models to that list, half of which don’t even stray out of the VW empire!
After a solid nine hours of travel, a delirious trip to the grocery store and then unpacking before crashing hard, I have recovered enough to bring you these images of my trip to Detroit (which is kind of like a Robocop theme park):
Of particular note in the set are is the casino photo which pretty much captures the blurry state of mind leaving Nero’s and the creepy pictures of the “indoctrinate an autoworker” Detroit Science Center.
Now with 100% more video:
Imagine if apartment complexes and shopping centers started installing these things in every space. Or if you could power a car via an induction track built into the roadway. Electric express lanes would be another incentive to buy plug-in electric assist or full electric cars. Still waiting for a plug-in hybrid that uses a diesel reserve generator. If only Audi would marry TDI to their e-tron concepts…
(Jalopnik)
While playing Forza 3 at the height of my addiction this past Spring, I built the most ridiculous of cars – a radioactive spider-bitten Mercedes B-Class with probably four times its value worth of performance modifications. At the end of my spending spree, I took it onto the Maple Valley racetrack to see what I had produced.
The results were interesting. Namely, the car fell over at the slightest indication of a corner. Then the back window fell out.
My surprise was supreme when I saw that Mercedes had built this:
Autoweek was invited to drive it by the Benz-people, reporting on its creation and specifics.
As its name suggests, the superbly constructed one-off prototype is well removed from the standard B-class. Having started life as a humble European-market B200 CDI, it has been liberated from its standard turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine. Shoehorned into its place and other extremities of the engine bay is the 5.5-liter V8 unit packing 383 hp and 391 lb-ft of torque.
Yes, but how did it handle? Was more time spent wondering how the ground “got up there” than actually rounding the test track?
Apart from a lack of self-centering with the steering, whose packaging has been compromised by the need to give up so much space to the engine and thus runs a smaller hydraulic pump than perhaps is required, the B55 also steers accurately, rides with impressive comfort and is free of any obvious vices.
Oh.
Well, don’t get too excited about it, because it’s never coming to the States with anything like this configuration (except in my dreams.)
Not that I’ve really had any problems, per se, but I’ve been thinking a lot about having all wheel drive now that I’m back in a climate where snow is an actual possibility eventuality. For whatever reason, the Mini Countryman Cooper S has caught my eye:
I mean, I will most likely end up with the next iteration of the A3 with Quattro (or maybe the Q3 or Q5 2.0T or A4 Avant or…), but there’s always something tempting about looking at other brands once you pass the midway point on a lease. And with so many small cars coming with intriguing features (Mercedes B-Class, VW Golf R, Alfa-Romeo Giulia, BMW X1) it’s going to be a tough call come November.