I wonder how their menage a trois went….
Porsche 914 and Porsche 911E
Category Archives: men
foto of the day. Europa
the original Lotus Europa was always a bit of an oddball, but so very unique and fascinating. Tiny, light, and quite a sharp handling car as all Lotuses are famous for—-the badge was resurrected in 2006/7 for a lackluster rebodied Lotus Elise they called the Europa—-a shame really, because the original had such immense character.
ipad app: Jaguar 75 Years.
the iPad has so many fantastic car-related applications—-another one I downloaded yesterday is for Jaguar—–celebrating 75 years of the big cat. Lots of amazing photos and history in this beautifully presented application. Available now from the iPad App store.
Here are just a couple screenshots taken with my IEDEI Pad:
foto of the day. 911.
Taken from a BaT Success story
the best looking 1988 911 you will ever see.
The owners of early 70s 911s who try to make their cars look ‘modern’ should be imprisoned. This guy, on the other hand has done the glorious thing and ‘backdated’ his 1988 911 into a 1971 Porsche 911 with upgraded parts and spec’d out.
The result is something which is quite simply…..wonderful.
click here to see the Craigslist AD ($38,000 in case you are obsessed)
http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/cto/2360939304.html
(thanks to S. Carder for the tip!)
foto of the day. save your Porsche! WIN
article from Porsche Purist
“A Porsche owner near Louisville Kentucky took every possible precaution to make sure their Porsche would be high and dry even if there house wasn’t. With rising flood waters rapidly approaching their home and no where to go genius struck. What better idea than to tether a float to your home, driver your Porsche on and inflate it to ride out the high water. From the looks of the picture below, the water is at least four or five feet up the garage door. Kudos to the owner of this Porsche!”
iPad: motoring stuff.
My lovely wife bought me an iPad last weekend. It’s an amazing device—-beautiful to use and full of utility. I am currently in the process of comprehensively reviewing a monumental amount of scientific knowledge for an upcoming examination—-and the iPad is like a saint that has come to help me out. It is brilliant. That being said—-there are tons of e-magazines available for the iPad related to cars—and i downloaded a few of the ‘free’ apps namely by BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and Porsche. I have to say that each one is entertaining and beautifully put together, especially for free. Apparently they will supply new issues as they are made….very cool. Here are some screencaps I took with the iPad of these 4 apps. BTW, the Mercedes application is just amazing—-it goes through their entire automotive history with photos and 2 minute audio summaries. Very cool, again.
i
IEDEI @ the NY Auto Show: press day megapost!
Well yes, this was the debut of IEDEI at a major auto show—I must thank JoshD from Quattroworld for setting me up with my media pass. Much appreciated indeed! at IEDEI you will not get photos of ‘every car’—-instead you will just get the ones i thought were interesting!
Some observations about the cars I saw at the Auto Show today:
A) I looked at and sat in A LOT of cars today and came up with a conclusion—–I like very few of them. I tried to only really take photos of the ones I either found interesting or appealing in some way.
B) The interior quality of most cars is quite frankly woeful. When I sat inside of a Boss 302 Mustang, I was quite frankly amazed at how badly made the interiors really are of these cars. I KNOW that this is not the point of them—and yes I know that none of this matters when one is aiming for lap times and stop light drag racing. However, IEDEI looks at the whole picture for inspiration—-and if a car has such a huge glaring gap in its merit, I simply cannot be bothered to care. After the show, i got into my Audi TT, and felt relieved to be in such a nice place! Not to say there were not nice interiors at the show, there were (Mercedes, Audi, GT-R, etc…) but most were lacking.
C) Surprises of the day? I sat in a Nissan GT-R for the first time in my life—–and you know what? I absolutely LOVED it. The interior felt like a true sports car, with amazingly high quality construction, fantastic seats, and the most amazing tactile paddle shifters I have ever felt on a car—–with raw brushed metal stalks. The car felt great to sit in—and to be honest I am compelled to take one for a test drive…soon hopefully!
D) the Kia Optima felt like an Audi—honestly the quality of their interior blew me away, and I think that Peter Schreyer (ex-Audi designer) has really upped Kia’s game when it comes to quality of product. I don’t care for Hyundai much—–but when i took a seat in the Kia Optima, it felt like an interior that was twice the price of the car. Nice one, Kia.
E) the Scion FR-S—-stunning.
F) VW Beetle: dissappointing. Terribly cheap and tacky interior. Not worth the hype.
some photos:
Fiat steering wheels:
Bentley random goods!
BMW 1-series M: just looked like a ‘modded’ 135i in person; a bit dissappointing to be honest. The interior, like the 135i, felt cheap and nasty. I really do like the 1-series as a car, however I think it never quite lives up to how much I want to like it. I’m sure it will still kick ass on a track though…
BMW M3 DTM: all types of wonderful.
Audi TT-RS – naturally better looking than the 1-series M, with a much MUCH nicer interior. Spoke with Johan De Nysschen (head of Audi Of America) about options and pricing. I was told the car will be about $60k in the US when it is launched this Autumn. 340hp version coming to the US, not the 360hp “plus” version as rumoured. This is the US-spec car.
the orgasm inducing Audi R8 GT: i couldn’t really get myself to leave sitting in this. So f*cking cool it pained me to leave it—-
the stunning Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG in Gulf livery? Not sure I understand Mercedes & Gulf colours on the same car—–however I wasn’t arguing, as it looked splendid, although a little bit puzzling for sure!
Mercedes A-Class Concept: beautiful design, flows very well. striking concept features like the ‘inverted mesh grille’ are very cool. Slated for the US market in 2013—-if it looks anything like this, it will be so cool to see these on the street!
Nissan GT-R: dare i say i have been developing a great appreciation for the GT-R as a technological masterpiece; today my opinion of it greatly increased after I fell in love with the interior—–it felt like i belonged there. Yes I know it’s been around for a while, but I’ve only come to understand it. Respect.
Red Bull F1 Car it still annoys me that somehow Infiniti have blagged their way onto this car (probably by begging parent company Renault, who supply the Red Bull engines)—–however man these F1 cars are something else to see in person. So much detail.
Scion FR-S: This car is UNBELIEVABLY gorgeous—-so beautiful that I found myself shocked that Toyota has designed it. It takes many cues from the Audi quattro Sport concept, as well as one of the E-tron concepts—–but holy shit if Toyota/Scion can build this and price it at $25k as a small, RWD car which is under 3000 pounds—-this car is going to be massive! (note: this car was a mock up, with no working interior—-so i’m not holding my breath about this being the production design)
Saab Phoenix Concept – This was revealed at the Geneva Auto Show a few months back——I thought it looked like utter shit in those photos i saw of it then, BUT i will say the car looks MUCH better in person—-much lower and sleeker. In fact, while I was taking these photos, another person and I were having a conversation about how this car looks like crap in the camera, but much better in person—-very strange! Even still, it is NOT a pretty design, but I will say it is interesting. Yes, the rear lights look like a 90s Firebird, as my friend from Automobiliac.com mentioned…and next to the car in this photo is the designer Jason Castriota.
Volkswagen Golf R/”R20″– really liked the interior touches for this special edition AWD continuation of the Golf R series. Looked nice and aggressive in its classic R shade of blue as well!
Porsche GT3-R Hybrid – self explanatory cool, even as a hybrid!
I found myself accidentally in front of a Shelby GTS unveiling—–but the car bored me (looks like every other bloody Shelby tuned Mustang!), and the annoying automotive journalists irritated me even more. I have to say that auto journalists kinda suck—–pushy, a little impatient, and they take way too many photos of anything with wheels….as if they will never see it again if they don’t…
foto of the day. Bragg & Mercer
I must admit I don’t know a whole lot about Caleb S. Bragg or Mercer, however I came across this foto in the fantastic Library Of Congress Archives on Flickr. Apparently from a bit of research, Bragg was the fastest qualifying race car driver in this Mercer for the 1913 Indianapolis 500. Cool foto, from a very cool archive of classic old & vintage fotos.
“making time”
My favourite film of all time is a brilliant English film named Withnail & I. It is not a car-related film, but for me it is just an absolutely hilarious, clever, and fantastic film about 2 strange and interesting blokes wired on chemicals. I have watched it far too many times…
One of my favourite scenes from this film, however, DOES involve cars—-and what a great scene it is. I suppose it is a little bit out of context when played on its own—–but it still cracks me up in every way.
For me, this is the Alpine A110 of films. It is strange….and probably not for everybody—but a ‘must see’ in my book.
how to turn a fail into a win!
this guy has some skillz and a ton of luck!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
new series: “Rookies To Racers”
Documenting the trials of young drivers looking for a chance to break it in the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Series. I believe the 1st show aired on April 7th on the Discovery Channel (USA). The trailer looks good! We need more good car-related TV programming!
6 ultra rare Bertone concepts to RM Auction
Wow. Never thought these would be in auction; apparently Bertone is really suffering…and are supposedly liquidating their museum. How sad.
Included are the unbelievably cool father-of-the-Lamborghini-Espada—–the Lamborghini Marzal—– as well as the Original Lancia Stratos Zero Concept. The Lamborghini Bravo concept has also always been one of my favourite ‘lost’ concepts from the 70s wedge-shaped revolution.
list of the 6 cars:
1967 Lamborghini Marzal
1963 Chevrolet Testrudo
1974 Lamborghini Bravo Concept
1978 Lancia Sibilo
1980 Lamborghini Athon
1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero
source: http://www.rmauctions.com/PressRelease.cfm?PressID=771
BMW 1M vs. Audi TT-RS
Car & Driver is improving!!—-good on them to test the 2 cars we have all been waiting to see a test of against each other—the wicked Audi TT-RS and the majestic BMW 1M. I love both of these cars—kind of torn because of my ‘Audiphile’ nature telling me to prefer the TT-RS, however deep somewhere in my head it’s the 1M that captures my imagination massively. I do despise the looks of the TT-RS, as i think they pretty much ruined the 2nd generation of the TT—a car that deserved to evolve better from the timless MK1. To me, the 1M’s styling makes it one of the best looking cars of my lifetime. Imaginative, toy-like, and just aggressive.
The Infiniti G37 IPL is also in this comparison, however doesn’t really match up to the other 2 in terms of size, style, or performance. The TT-RS posts a 0-60 time of 3.6 seconds (!!!!!) and beats the other two in lap times and most performance criteria. No surprise there, but by price, i have to say the BMW 1M is such a great car starting at $47k. I don’t think the owners of either of these 2 monsters will be dissappointed….i think the Porsche Cayman R would have been a good 3rd car in this comparison. Meanwhile….please excuse me while i continue to have wet dreams about that orange 1M.
(these scans were uploaded by Superchargedcarman from 1addicts)
CLICK TO ENLARGE
IEDEI @ the car wash.
I haven’t washed the TT in what feels like months. It had started to look like a Jackson Pollock painting—-so today, after hours of work this weekend—i decided to take the car in for a wash. I really don’t like washing my own car—it is a time consuming flush of an activity! So i’d much rather pay others to do it, which is exactly what I did at my local Brooklyn hand wash. I was joined by some interesting company.
(today i realised my car is quite low…as the R8 was almost the same height)
new sunglasses.
I have a ‘bond’ with Dunhill sunglasses—i really enjoy all of their products. I have broken my nose several times throughout my life, which causes most sunglasses to fit like a circle on a square. Dunhills, however, fit quite well and since observing this, i have continued my cycle of buying their sunglasses. This being said, i do have a pair of Persols which fit quite nicely; however those are my backup gangsta glasses I keep in the car.
I ordered these last week, and they came today—-with a lovely alcantara rimmed leather Dunhill carrying case. Apologies for this ghetto photo, as i hate using flash, and that’s the only way i could capture the beautiful matte black finish of the frames.
question.
Tagged cool, filming, king of cool, set of le mans, steve mcqueen
“automotive monogamy” by Matteo Ferrari
I love these photos. I first came across Matteo’s photos in one of my automotive magazines “Intersection”, however Matteo Ferrari is known for this type of time lapsed photography of cars and their owners—-showing the often long-term relationships with their automobiles. After owning the TT for 8 years, I am currently finding myself acknowledging the deep bonds between cars and their owners.
Here are some of the photos he has done… from his website
Man who has owned 400 cars.
I found this interesting—-mainly because he is not a wealthy, powerful, man—-but because he’s a regular bloke who just likes mass produced attainable cars! Fascinating.
Mr Riddick’s least favourite models have lasted barely a week – his record was returning a car days after buying it because it didn’t fit in his garage.
Every single one has been a mass market vehicle as the retired building firm owner has no interest in luxury or sports cars and did not want to appear flash in front of clients.
‘I passed my driver’s licence in 1959 and bought an Austin A40 for £500. I was the first on the street to have a car and it just snowballed from there,’ said Mr Riddick, 67, who lives with his wife, Glen, in Shefford, Bedfordshire.
‘My wife doesn’t mind,’ he said. ‘It was just my hobby, I didn’t chase other women or drink – I just spent money on cars.’
“SENNA”: some thoughts about the film…
This afternoon, at the uneasy time of 12:15am on a Saturday, I was joined by a couple mates (also from the automotive blogging world) to go see “Senna”, which is playing at the Village East Cinema in NYC. We entered the theatre right on time, and joked that we were wondering who the other 15-20 people were in the theatre; and WHY they were there! Could there be this many motorheads willing to make it to the theatre at that time on a Saturday? Apparently so.
The film was quite lovely; made like a documentary—spanning from the beginning of his career in karting til the obvious end of his career. Touching on his youth, but showing some very rare and moving film clips with scenes I had never seen before. As a kid growing up in Detroit, one of the events I annually attended with my father was the Detroit Grand Prix, where I remember there was a time when Senna would win every year. The first year I went, i remember Nelson Piquet winning. So naturally, my favourite 2 F1 drivers became Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna.
(sorry, i took these pics with a mobile phone!)
I know that Senna was a character. He was competitive, full of personality, not afraid to speak his mind, and most of all a tremendous driver. This film essentially covered all of his positive attributes, and showed him in the light of a tribute. It was a fitting tribute. I had seen many clips of his races online, and a lot of this film I had seen in some form or another; but I have never seen any clips of driver’s meetings with the FIA directors, I had never seen some of the more candid interviews and conversations—–and maybe because I was too young—I never realised how much battling and political stuff was going on between Prost & Senna. Now it makes sense WHY i hated Prost as a kid—-because he was always batting with my favourite who was Senna.
I won’t tell you the full details of the film, because I feel you should watch it yourself. Seeing F1 in the movie theater was a pleasure, and although it seems like a collage of document film clips taken from many different sources; it was full of great commentary, great footage, and some truly moving moments. All in all, a great film; I am really glad someone made it (in this case, a gentleman named Asif Kapadia)—-you should all see it.
Senna is playing at the Village East Cinema in the East Village of NYC. (thanks to Xander for the tip!)
http://www.villageeastcinema.com/angelika_film.asp?hID=166&ID=fmj4747.79896806s137092v9.38
must watch….
“Heights of Danger”. available on DVD. the film is from 1953. I wanna watch it! Gotta find a DVD.
video of the day. 1970 weird film.
from some french film called “L’Homme Orchestra”.
featuring a Lamborghini Miura and some variant of a Fiat Coupe. I found this quite amusing!!
IEDEI 
