As part of The Wolfsonian art museum’s “Styled for the Road” weekend of automotive themed activities, we had the pleasure of listening to BMW’s former head of design, Chris Bangle, talk about cars as art. The first question that Mr. Bangle asked the audience is why can’t cars be art? Just because they are a functional aspect of our daily lives doesn’t mean that they don’t evoke emotion much like a painting or sculpture can. As a means of defending his argument, Mr. Bangle spent a bit of time applying the Duck Test, because after all if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, then why can’t a car be art.
A common misconception at this point in the story is differentiating between the terms car and automobile. The word automobile has only been around for the past 120 years and is used to describe a vehicle that can propel itself; in other words that thing you use to get from point A to point B as a purely functional part of your life can be considered an automobile. However the word car, which comes from the 2000 year old Roman term “carro” looks at the four wheeled machine in a whole new light. Simply put the car is a much more personal item, it is the thing you get what you wash on Saturday morning, it is the vehicle in which you can make an entrance and let the world know something about yourself.
Chris talks about how the car is an avatar, an object of personal expression that the owner feels a strong relationship with and serves as a significant part of their identity.
It’s not much, but we’ll take it any way we can get it.
The new 2011 BMW 5 Series won’t be revealed for a few more days, but BMW has given us a sneak peek of what the car – or at least the front side of it – will ultimately look like.
Now, we’ve circled November 24 on our calendars for a while now, but we’re not disappointed that these photos came out two days before the highly-anticipated debut of the new 5-Series. Based from what we’re seeing, the new 5-Series bears some resemblance to the incumbent 7-Series that’s out on the market these days.
But before we get too carried away with our comparisons, we’re going to hold on to our horses until BMW’s official unveiling.
The luxury arm of General Motors, Cadillac has added a sportier new model to their CTS lineup of midsize vehicles. Cadillac showed off the CTS Coupe Concept back in 2008 at the Detroit Auto Show and following much of the same lines, the new model is set to go on sale in the spring of 2010, with a more powerful V-Series version later on in the year.
The Cadillac CTS Coupe is powered by a direct injected 3.6 Liter V6 gas burning engine and is mated to a six speed manual transmission standard with a Driver Shift Control automatic as an option. The combination is good for a total of 304 HP sent either directly to the rear wheel or routed through an all wheel drive system. Depending on how you want your CTS Coupe Cadillac is offering first the Performance Package that comes complete with a set of 18 inch wheels wrapped in all season tires and is available for both the RWD and AWD versions as well as the all out Summer Tire Performance Package that upgrades your rollers to a set of 19 inch units as well as stickier rubber for a higher level of road holding. No matter which you choose, you are sure to have BMW 3 Series drivers gawking at you wherever you go.
The great thing about YouTube is you that can scour its site for a few minutes and find auto commercials from other countries that you wouldn’t be able to find simply by flipping through the channels on your local cable network. While there may be times where different languages prevent us from fully-comprehending these ads, the sheer satisfaction that comes with watching them is sure worth it, even if we don’t understand them sometimes.
Thankfully, this particular Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution commercial from Australia is dialogue free so we can enjoy it for what it is: a visceral treat that promotes the Mitsubishi Evolution as capable of defying the laws of physics. Give it a look and tell us that you weren’t floored by this visual masterpiece.
Ever the innovative pioneer that they are, Ferrari is now working on a new type of car door that’s designed to improve passenger and driver access for all of its vehicles.
The Italian supercar makers recently applied for a licensing patent on a revolutionary door that should rival those that we’ve seen from Lamborghini and Mercedes over the years. For their design concept, Ferrari is working on a door that’s attached to the car’s front wing where the door hinges upward when it is opened allowing the drivers to get in and out of the car as effortlessly as possible.
There’s no word yet as to when Ferrari will be introducing these doors but despite the uncertain timeframe, rumor has it that these doors are perfectly suitable for mid-engined cars, which incidentally is fast becoming a Ferrari trademark.
’Ferrari’ and ’trailblazer’ are two words that have long been synonymous with each other, and these new doors are just the latest example of the many ideas that pop out of the heads from the folks at Maranello.
In 1982 at the Geneva Auto Show, Ferrari replaced the Mondial 8 with an even more powerful version, the Mondial Quattrovalvole. The "Quattrovalvole" name referred to the 4 (quattro) valve per cylinder engine that increased the engine power, but also made it easier to comply with US emissions legislation. The car was produced between 1982 and 1985, during which time 1145 examples were produced, in both right and left hand drive versions, together with various world market specification models.
The Mondial Quattrovalvole featured a wedge body shape theme with the radiator grille beneath the front bumper. The overall shape was identical to the preceding model, including the black plastic wrap around bumpers front and rear, together with the large trapezoidal air intake grilles for the engine bay on the body sides behind the doors, and paired circular rear light assemblies.
Although the exterior remained unchanged, apart from the replacement of the Mondial 8 badge with Mondial Quattovalvole badging to the tail panel, the interior was lightly modified, mainly in respect of the center console layout.
The Finns may not be the most amiable people in the world, but few nationalities can come close to the level of success Finns have had in motorsports.
From Formula One champions to highly-successful youth karting and motorcycle programs, Finland has produced arguably the most talented and successful crop of racers over the years. One sport that has seen a lot of immensely talented and successful Finns is rally racing, with notable former champions like Tommi Makinen and Juha Jankkunen only two of the many Finnish rally car drivers that have made an impact on the sport.
It’s safe to say that it takes a certain level of guts and dedication to become a successful rally car driver and the Finns, for the most part, have both these qualities in abundance. Check out this video compilation of some of the most insane rally crashes that have happened in Finland alone. Don’t be surprised by the things you see in the video because for those crazy Finns, rally crashes are as much a part of their culture as high-tech mobile phones.
An enormous hurricane – Ida, as it was called - ravaged the East Coast a week ago and it’s being hailed as the worst one to hit Virginia and the Carolinas in a long time. And while there’s nothing remotely funny about natural disasters of this magnitude, this photo of a Porsche Cayman getting buried in sand along Cape Hatteras in North Carolina was – in the least bit – mildly amusing.
Good luck getting that out of its sinkhole, and on a more important note, we hope everyone is alright from that part of the US.
Days before the world premier of the new Audi A8 at the Audi Pavilion in Miami, the boys from Ingolstadt released a short teaser video of the new flagship luxury sedan.
It looks like Audi is really pushing hard to create an artsy spin on the new A8, even going as far as giving us a rather, ‘artistic’ teaser of the new A8. Not much of the car is shown, but it does make you wonder as to what the unveiling is going to be like on November 30.
As far as we’re concerned, we have a gut feeling that it’s going to be something we’ve never seen before. But that’s just us.
When it comes to kooky advertising and off-the-wall marketing campaigns, few car brands can hold a candle to MINI.
By now, it’s no secret that MINI has spent the entire year coming up with some pretty zany, funny and not to mention, creepy ads so it’s a fair assumption to say that wouldn’t expect anything less from them.
Their latest commercial is no different from all the other ads MINI has released this year: it’s downright hilarious.
Suffice to say, when a girl tells you to bring ‘protection’, you’d be an idiot – or in this case, a dork – to misinterpret her not-so-subtle hints. Enjoy the video and get a good laugh out of it.
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