Venti Bentley

Last week my friend Laurence mentioned something in Costa Coffee. The stupidness of sizing your coffee! Every time you have identify the size your coffee or tea; small, medium, large and sometime it is quite pointless. I don’t like it either, because a tea is a tea. The size the same in everywhere, and for coffee also! The size of cappuccino is very clear, you don’t have to express you MBA degree ego to coffee. How I know this, I have MBA also. Based on our training, sorry education every product can be expand in order to increase profit with stupid names. Tall, Grande, Venti! I know each of these names express a capacity but nobody knows it, people are trying to learn them because it sound cool! And this is the side effects of iPod generation.

Unfortunately this MBA obsessed branding strategy virus split to Bentley also. Their “new” vehicle Continental family have different types. The cheapest one with no special name, it means you don’t want something very sporty, you don’t have many horse powers, you don’t want accurate steering wheel or you cannot afford to buy the more expensive one. The second choice is called Speed model, it has 610 horse power (normal one has 555 horse power), it is more sporty, very fast, comfortable, communicative steering wheel and more expensive. And last one is the SuperSports, that is a lunatic car with 630 horse power and can achieve 329 kph (204 mph) without any problem. Actually I don’t know why it is not capable of doing 330 kph! This car is very fast, very sporty, seats are a bit uncomfortable, very fast, has a very sexy bonnet, very fast. And also very expensive!

So I really wonder, why someone wants to buy a slow Bentley? It is against its DNAs of Bentley. Hey, I have a slow Bentley! This does not sound well :( As I mentioned everything has changed now, coffee is being sold with weird sizes, everything has a category, group or something else. Actually this is the iPod era! And I don’t like it. I just want to see a lunatic Bentley with exquisite comfort at the same time.

Tall Bentley Continental (New Model)

Grande Bentley Continental

Venti Bentley Continental

Starts on paper, ends up on paper

Usually I don’t watch the videos on iPhone applications. They might be boring, too long or I just don’t bother to watch. This time I wondered the Fendi’s video section on iPhone application and watched it. It was an interview with Karl Lagerfeld. As you can imagine, it is all about fashion but I like the last sentence of the interview. Fashion starts with paper and ended up in magazine or newspaper, paper is the starting point and where it ends up. This sentence basically defines the fashion business.

From this point of view, cars stars with paper and ended up in paper also. The design stage, sketches mostly starts on paper, then to computer and later on with clay models. The production is done with metals and finally the pictures are printed on magazine or newspaper. I know the end up product of design is a car and made by steel, however every car built on earth printed on paper. Either it is nice or ugly, you can find a picture of each car printed on somewhere. As Lagerfeld mentioned, starts with papers, ends up with paper! I think cars and fashion have more common aspects than we know!

Pictures' Copyrights

Fendi, Land Rover, Mercedes McLaren

Porsche Design Hollywood movie

A short movie from Porsche Design. Starring Karel Roden and Titanic's star Billy Zane. All the objects used in this movie are available in Porsche Design stores, if you can afford them :)

Form and Function

A pre-histroic car in New York

Flash news from Volkswagen for US market! Actually the news release is for Europe but the content should be explained to Americans. Volkswagen’s boring family sedan Jetta is quite common in US like in Europe. If you have two children, a wife and most probably you are young and you could not afford to buy a larger car. Anyway, family cars suppose to offer more comfort than coupes! This means suspension should be “a bit” more comfortable without compromising the handling.

Unfortunately, two generations ago Jetta (Bora) and Golf models were offering a catastrophic rear suspension system called torsion bar. Actually some Toyota models and French cars still have this. What’s wrong with that? Very simply; torsion bar is not a suspension, it is just a cheaper replacement for a proper suspension. Many of you will think, so what! When you have a car with a torsion bar, your handling will be worse and people in the back seat will feel the every single pothole inside their spine! It is offering neither better handling nor comfort but it is cheaper!

VW was using this with Bora (Old Jetta) and Golf, later on understood what they done wrong and replace the rear suspension with multi-link independent rear suspension. Multi-link independent rear suspension is a proper suspension, you don’t need to worry about anything but it is expensive for car companies. For that reason, Ford Focus always had worse interior and great handling. Ford Focus has the best rear suspension on its segment.

The current Jetta sold in US market is offered with torsion bar. This means, Americans have a pre-historic suspension system in a European car, hopefully in Europe VW did not risk its reputation and offers the Jetta with proper multi-link independent suspension. Anyway, Jetta is available with micro size engine 1,2lt TSi with 105 horses inside :)

European Jetta 

Pictures' Copyrights

Ford, VW

The best BMW 1 Series Review

This news is a bit old but I recently noticed in August issue of TopGear Magazine. They tried to double the price of cars through online configurator and they made a great statement about BMW and 1 Series :)

GQ Sections

I have been reading GQ UK Magazine for long time. I like the way they combine different topics together in one fashion magazine. You can find whatever you want in each issue. It is like a Swiss army knife magazines, if you want to learn life style start reading GQ. Especially the UK edition, because it is better!

However I have some concerns about GQ, as I mentioned they talk about everything but not everything all the time! Their car section is written by Celia Walden and Jason Barlow. Celia drove everything from tank to private jets and we know Jason from CAR and TopGear magazines. Despite the respectful contributors to car column, but I’ve never seen cars in their Style section. There are lots of things expects car. Actually cars are placed under “Entertainment”! GQ’s placement for cars is very interesting.

I know cars are entertaining but the stylish people do not drive cheap and dull looking cars. They spent fortune on stylish cars. Like, Range Rover Autobiography, Mercedes’s bespoke Designo, BMW Individual and many more. I am not expecting to see a diesel Volkswagen Passat Estate in Style section but they can place some of the cars under it.

How to pronounce Range Rover Evoque?

As a part of my blog’s social responsibility. I have noticed the huge curiosity about how to pronounce Evoque, Range Rover’s new small SUV. Like it is astonishing design, its brand is also astonishing and many people are trying to learn how to pronounce it over Google!

And I tried to create the phonetic transcription of Evoque word. The first “E” part sound similar to “E” in email and “VOGUE” part sounds similar to “VOKE” in provoke word. Then I combined the two phonetic transcriptions and made this.

Here it is:

Evoque: ˈiˈvəʊk

Pictures' Copyright

Land Rover

Phonetics

Oxford Dictionary

EcoBoosted dancers in Ford KA, Tony Guy Event

Today was the last of day of Ford KA and Toni Guy event in Bullring, Birmingham. Yesterday I did not have time to take a video of dancers in event. They did the same show every one hour I guess, or every 45 minutes. I am not sure about the timing but they were very energetic. Hopefully today I manage to take a full dancing show of EcoBoosted dancers.

I am sure you will be asking what is EcoBoost? This is the new engine technology in Ford cars. Small engines are coupled with turbo and they produce more power and consume less fuel. Also current 2,0lt engine turn into V6 engines with the help of turbo! Now you can understand why I called the dancers EcoBoosted :)

The iTunes link for the song
Party Girl, McFLY

Picture's Copyright
Ford

A Ford KA inside a BullRing

For many years, I always have sympathy to Ford KA. The first generation and never be the old generation Ford KA was one of the most significant and iconic designs from 1990s. When you think about the cars like Mercedes E Class, Ford Escort, Renault Megane, VW Passat; you can understand what I mean. I even did not upload their pictures to prevent any adverse flashbacks. From the mess of 1990s, I can clearly say Ford KA is the only car I loved. I know it is a very basic car and mainly targeted to girls. But it had the integration of basic and cleaver design and an identity for that price tag. Actually if you pay less, you get less but Ford KA can be an exception for this.

Anyway, my second big encounter with Ford KA was on Friday. My dear twitter friend Laurence Borel kindly invited me to Ford KA and TONI & GUY hair design event. As you might remember, I nominated Richard Hammond as the winner but he did not appear in today in Bullring Birmingham. Honestly, new Ford KA did not excite me that much. Even though it has the new Ford Kinetic Design, I could not emerge the same feelings like I had it for the first generation KA. This new model is based on Fiat 500 and that’s much better looking car. Sorry Ford, this is the ugly truth! Unfortunately, Fiat 500 and Ford KA share more than chassis and KA has the same interior dials from Fiat 500! That’s second minus point for KA. However, the production quality and some nice bits like leather steering wheel tries to compensates the catastrophe of Fiat and Ford dating but I didn’t feel the same like the new Ford Fiesta.

Okay, that’s enough for Ford KA. The event was dominated mainly by women, and it was something very usual. And they did something very clear to attend this event and have their hair designed by the team of Toni Guy. Despite the Ford KA’s lovely price tag, Toni Guy does not have very lovely price tags and this event was a great opportunity to people.

Lastly, there was a limited edition Tattoo Ford KA and it had very nice bits like chrome or chrome looking door handles, leather seat with a heating button which wobbles too much due to hurry design and powered by a 1,2lt engine with 69 horses which gives you’re the opportunity to put the engine into your huge handbag. By this way, you need to worry about your car :)

You cannot buy something better for this price. I know there are many annoying bits but for this price, it is a great value. It is safe, reliable, good handling (this is a Ford must), slightly better looking that Nissan Micra. You can see the full album in Picasa.

Toyota and Lexus are calling us again

This is a social responsibility post!

I recently read the news about Lexus and Toyota recall about brake fluid. Based on press release, brake hydraulic may leak from brake master cylinder and your brake will flash and you will lose some of your braking power.

More basically; if your brake fluid escapes from the car and your brake pedal feels like chewing gum, there is one explanation for this. You are done!! That small brake light which is flashing is the thin line between live and death. So if you have any of these very dull looking, boring, very boring Lexus or Toyota cars start running to workshop. I know new cars looks like Playstation games but there is no restart button!!! So, don’t waste your time going around internet and go to workshop now :)

The interesting point of this recall, what was Toyota thinking while designing the brake system. Come on, hydraulic brake system is older than electric windows. And they should have more experience of brake systems than heating system!

Toyota Recall

Lexus Recall

Symbol of Wealth in 21th Century: More buttons in Porsche Panamera

The symbol of wealth is an important incentive for people buy particular brands, I know this sounds very marketing lecture book but this is the reality. In every time era, people found a way to express their wealth and this is quite easy when you have lots of money to spend. During 18th century, there was something called "window tax" in UK and I am pretty sure that money people had window just to show their purchasing power! In 19th century, there were lots of new inventions to buy and you had chance to travel US by cruise ship called Titanic. But this was not a very effective way to show your wealth.

Anyway, now you can buy Vertu phones, shop from Harvey Nichols grocery and literally you have infinite opportunity to show your wealth!

During my last London visit, I have been to Porsche dealer to satisfy pleasures! I did not have chance to check Panamera and Cayenne. Thankfully the Porsche stuff was very kind and I have adequate time to play with the cars. And I noticed something!

If you pay more, you get more buttons in Porsche! Especially in Panamera! Even though some of the buttons do not mean anything but you have extra buttons to push.

There are 23 different buttons in both sides of the gear lever! I did not count the ones above the lever. Just left and right sides. Climate control, suspension firmness, suspension height, exhaust pleasure, traction control off, auto start/stop off, sport, hard core sport, I want to show my rear wind button, rear window something, heated seats and that's all. I am sure that if you put these buttons in driving license examination half of the candidate would definitely fail!

What we learn from this? If you see more buttons in a Panamera, the owner has money than you have :)

Pictures' Copyrights

Me, Porsche

Achtung! Google

Google’s driverless car became very popular news in everywhere but nobody mentioned the threat! I am not a computer engineer but I do know that; whatever Google works on something, it mostly ends up with success. GMail, Google Earth, GoogleDocs, Google Translate, Android operation system and many other products. And with each product Google becomes a major competitor and sometimes removes some of its competitors, like Nokia vs. iPhone. Nowadays it is Google Android vs. iPhone!

Google Driverless car might seem a testing or project from Silicon Valley guys but this is an important threat to automotive firms especially Bosch and Siemens. These two companies are the manufacturers of engine control units. What is engine control management? Basically, that is everything for your car. It controls engine and its unit also it communicates with other modules like traction control, stability control, radar guided cruise control, automatic breaking system, electric need of the other modules and components. Basically it is the core of the car! And Google’s car is planning to enter this market.

Google is very clever, every new car on earth has engine control unit and other components and market is mainly supplied by Bosch and Siemens. And very profitable! However it is extremely hard to enter this business, you cannot assign your Google Earth team to develop automotive software, because it will end up with catastrophe. In automotive dictionary, catastrophe means accidents and destroying the brand reputation. Therefore car companies may not be a very happy to work with a company which have no experience in automotive except Google Street View car!

This does not mean that Google can create its own automotive department and offer Android for your engine! For that reason, Bosch and Siemens should consider this stupid Toyota Prius driven by Google Search Engine! As I can see from the pictures, Google is recording every kind of information from the car’s sensors. Automotive guys, I know you understood what I mean!

Pictures' Copyrights

Bosch, Google, Toyota