I started a new job towards the end of last week—-and my time has been quite consumed over the past week. Apologies for little to no IEDEI updates. To make it up to you, here is a megapost with plenty of things which have been consuming my daydreams all week.
cheers—Syed
Peter Schreyer heads up the Kia design team at the moment, and he is of course the person who led Audi out of the dark days and into the light with designs such as the 8N MK1 Audi TT, B5 A4, C5 A6, and many other great designs. This is Schreyer’s latest design for Kia.
This is Kia’s foray into the wide world of luxury sedans, and supposedly going to be named the “K9” which, I have to say is a completely juvenile choice in name—reminds me of a clumsy police unit on an old TV show. But the design? It looks fantastic. Sure there are cues of the ‘coupe-sedan’ trend that’s going on, and Schreyer has always added Audi bits into his Kia designs (in this case, a healthy bit of A7 swooping)—but this looks fresh and edgy, almost making me think that if Lamborghini introduced a sub-$100k sedan—it would probably look like this. I hope they build it.
Oh, and Jaguar need to pull their heads out of their asses and hire a guy like Schreyer to design stuff like this for them…i could definitely see this car with a Jaguar badge more than a Kia badge.
and look at the side-view mirrors…they are video cameras! SWEET!
source: Road & Track
Yeah I don’t give a crap about Ferrari—it’s a vulgar company who have built the most overrated, cheesy, and overhyped cars of my lifetime. They’re like the ‘jocks’ of the automotive world…ready to strangle automotive journalists with their sweaty, annoying jockstraps.
BUT TODAY I read a statement by Luca Di Montezemelo (CEO of Ferrari) which made my heart turn all fuzzy and warm—although the statement involves Ferrari’s future plans, what warmed my heart is their resistance to join the overwhelming surge of electric cars. My favourite marques Audi and Porsche have also recently joined into the electric car frenzy with their own projects; which has caused me a certain amount of interest to see what they’ve come up with, but a certain amount of disappointment at them selling out to the frenzy.
What did Mr. Di Montezemelo say?
“You will never see a Ferrari electric because I don’t believe in electric cars, because I don’t think they represent an important step forward for pollution or C02 or the environment.”
Very cool. I’m glad someone had the balls to say it. Too bad his next line was “But we are working very, very hard on a Hybrid Ferrari”…..oh well, i didn’t expect them to completely stray off the beaten path.
source: Left Lane News
With Audi surpassing Ferrari in the all-time Le Mans wins with 10 currently, the all-time leading marque (16 wins) is set to return! Porsche is planning a return to Le Mans, and I for one am very excited to see more competition to the greatest race in the world!
(rendering below, via Speed Arena–not actual car!)
By now i’m sure you have heard the debates about Formula One switching to a V6 Turbos OR 4-cylinder Turbos by 2013/2014. The latest news being reported by ESPN is saying that Audi was one of the primary reasons why F1 had initially agreed to switch to 4 cylinder turbos. Apparently Audi had originally said they would join, and the FIA obliged by accepting the idea of the 4 cylinder turbo. After the decision was made, Audi then flipped and decided the finances weren’t working out for them to join F1—and changed their mind. Following Audi’s uncertainty about joining F1, the FIA has recently decided that it is going back to the original idea of V6 Turbos.
I, personally, am a big fan of 4 cylinder turbos and feel they would have enhanced development of road going 4 cylinder turbos in street cars—-and am dissappointed that Audi retracted their original idea of joining F1. I think it would have been great if they had joined—possibly filling the void that BMW had left when they retreated from F1 a few years ago. Here’s hoping they change their minds again and decide to enter!
http://en.espnf1.com/fia/motorsport/story/52832.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
(thanks to Stampchez for the tip!)
This parking spot reminds of my parking spot.
There are several sites streaming the Nurburgring 24 Hour race, but they are all using the same live German feed—-however i am disturbed that they play awful music in the background during the race, alternating with german commentary….which is present on ALL the feeds i’ve looked at, including the official one. Those crazy germans….WHY in the world is the original broadcast playing that rubbish music!? I haven’t a clue…”Radio Nurburgring”? really?
But either way, i can’t complain—–as the full 24 hours is available for FREE online streaming.
http://tv.audi.com/portal/#/01
the gorgeous Siata 208 CS
a vintage poster of the very cool DKW Monza!
great stuff!! (thanks to Halle for the tip!)
VIA: http://www.spotterguides.com/le-mans-2011-guide
(click to enlarge)
Rejoice! The finest week in motorsports has arrived—–the race of all races, the 24 Hours Of Le Mans is upon us. For many people this signals the proper start to ‘summer’, including myself. Of course it is no secret that I am an Audiphile through and through—-it is also no secret that Audi and Peugeot have had some fierce battles in the past several years, culminating in one of the great rivalries in motorsports history. Motorsports have these days become numb and unexciting; however Le Mans has retained most of its charm. I still get a buzz every time i see the start of the race, even though it is not nearly as dramatic as the old days when people ran into their cockpits.
So will the new Audi R18 TDI be able to surmount the fierce Peugeot 918 HDi reign? I would like to hope so, but we’ll just have to follow along the best we can!
I know that the entire 24 hours will be broadcasted with continuity in Europe on Eurosport TV, however we are not so lucky in the US. That being said, we live in the age of bootlegged online TV—-and i’m quite sure many many feeds from Europe will surface that day. If they don’t, Audi have set up a fantastic minisite which will go live the day of the race. They will have 24 hour live on-board coverage of the three R18 TDIs which are racing—–accompanied by live telemetry and race data. Fantastic.
http://www.audi-microsites.com/lemans/
I will add some more links and information to other feeds as the race gets closer—–obviously I cannot watch all 24 hours—-but I always watch as many hours of coverage as I possibly can.
Another great source of race day coverage is of course the fantastic Radio Le Mans<
McNish is one of my favourite endurance drivers—-and a great driver. Le Mans is coming on June 11th!
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.
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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…
IEDEI is back after a week away in Italy. The purpose of this trip was not car-related, but as a vacation for my wife and I to get away from the busy NYC days and to check out Italy for the first time. Firstly, we loved Italy for its superb food, beautiful historical city and landscapes, lovely people, and it’s good vibes. I had originally planned to drive for a few days within Italy, however due to our short itinerary, we decided that using the superb Eurostar train system there seemed optimal and most efficient. The trains are of course very comfortable, and very easy to use—and I highly recommend them to anyone traveling through Italy or the rest of western Europe.
Here are a list of some basic observations I made about motoring and cars in Italy from a passenger point of view.
1. People have very eccentric parking habits in Rome—-pretty much makes NYC parking look like a regulated, organized affair.
2. The freeways are very tame, boring affairs—-similar to freeways anywhere else, including the US.
3. I would say 95% of the cars seen parked and driving consist of small, slow, functional economy hatchbacks.
4. In 7 days in Italy, through 4 cities (Roma, Firenze, Napoli, and Capri)—- i did not see a SINGLE Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, pre-1990 Alfa Romeo, pre-1990 Lancia, or pre-1990 Fiat. I was shocked at the lack of interesting Italian cars present there. I can honestly say that the most interesting cars I saw in Italy were a couple Alfa Romeo Breras, a bunch of fanastic Audis not readily seen in US markets(A1, S3, A3 Roadster, B8 S4 Avant, A4 Allroad), many Alfa Romeo 159s (which are much more beautiful in person than even the photos show), and ONE Alfa Romeo 147 GTA and ONE Alfa Romeo GTV (mid 90s version).
5. I spoke with a guy who was working at a Lancia repair centre, and asked him what he thought of the ‘new’ Lancias (like the Ypsilon) and he said “Lancia has not been Lancia for many years”—to which i completely agreed with him. When i asked him why Italians don’t drive ‘older’ Alfas and Lancias he told me “because it is not easy to drive an older Alfa or Lancia everyday in our cities, and many of the cars have broken and are gone”. I think this summed up the situation pretty well. Sad for classic cars in Italy then…..
6. I started wanting to buy a small hatchback. Even the absolutely terrible Lancia Ypsilon started to look alright to me after a week there—-but then i stopped drinking and remembered how rubbish it is. The ‘newer’ Alfa Romeo Mito and Alfa Romeo Giuliettas are very cool little cars…..the Giuletta is very beautiful in person, and would love to see it make it over to the US market. It has a lot more presence on the road than most hatchbacks its size. The Mito is the perfect Alfa answer to the small hatchback italian solution—-however I was shocked to see that the pricing on the Mito starts at 16k Euros and goes all the way into the low 20k range. The Audi A1 is a simply stunning example of a hatchback, beautifully proportioned, very stylish, and very well put together.
7. My wife commented that Audis parked there looked more Italian than Italian cars there…and I have to say that probably rings true for the modern cars being sold in Italy. Plenty of Audis there, as the Italians have picked up on the styling as well, and have bought into it. I would say that 1 out of every 3 ‘nice’ cars seems to be an Audi. This pleased my Audiphile tendencies, of course!
8. Word is, that the Alfa Romeo Museum has been shut for good——at least that’s what somebody told me there. I was not planning on visiting it on this trip anyways, however it seems that it was closed a couple of months ago for renovation, and there are no plans to re-open it—-which would be an absolute shame of course.
9. Fiats are definitely the most popular cars in Italy—–i’d say 6 to 1 over everything else.
10. Traffic is slow, pedestrians are plenty, traffic rules are not obeyed all the time, however I found it actually less chaotic than NYC driving—-at least from a passenger seat. The problem here in NYC is the amount of speed people carry on the roads; whereas in Italy, I didn’t seen people bustling in speed—at least not in the 4 cities I went to.
A couple random photos:
I did happen to stumble upon a ‘motoring’ channel on the Italian cable TV during our last night stay in Rome, where they showed 24 hour coverage of weird obscure motoring events around Italy—pretty cool I have to say! GTV InterMotori
I have not bought an issue of Car & Driver for at least 7 or 8 years. But i bought a copy of the latest edition the other day at Duane Reade after surprisingly seeing the new quattro Sport Concept splashed across the cover along with the original. By far and away, my favourite concept car of the last few years—–and one that gets my blood rushing! MAKE IT AUDI! put me on the facking list!
But i gotta say, C&D have taken some GREAT photos of the new quattro Sport. Here are some of them (enlarge for hi-res)
C&D have also written a very nice article to go with these pictures, so i highly recommend having a read if you’re into the quattro Sport Concept as i am….
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11q1/audi_quattro_concept_meets_ur-quattro-feature
South Africa, 1988. No words needed.
my love for the ur quattro is growing by the week (especially since i’ve been racing a modded one on GT5 these days!)…it has now become one of my automotive holy grails (if it wasn’t already), and much MUCH more affordable than my ultimate holy grail which is the Alpine A110 ($50k+ now easily).
here’s a beautiful one for sale in Connecticut. Just posted today—so if you really want a place in the IEDEI envy books plop down the cash, kids! Gorgeous in every way
he’s asking $16,500 for the car. 102k miles. a very fine example. Finished in “amazon blue”, one of 73 cars in this colour from that year. If you are interested, email me iedeiblog@gmail.com for more information.
The superb work of Rob Ijbema, as shown on IEDEI before…..
http://car-a-day.blogspot.com/2010/09/auto-union-streamliner.html
click to enlarge
Could this combination be any better?!? my favourite carmaker and my favourite camera maker have come together, with one of my favourite auto designers Walter De Silva putting his hands on the redesign of the Leica M9 Titanium Edition. It will probably be too expensive, but it’s also too cool….what does “expensive” mean? well considering a standard M9 costs $7000+, i’m guessing this limited edition will be at least $8000 or more? OUCH OUCH!
As much as i love my Leica D-Lux 4, i must admit to daydreaming…..
more info: http://us.leica-camera.com/photography/special_editions/m9_titan/
IEDEI 
