An electric car in 1899, is it real ?

Actually I wasn’t planning to write for today but ideas kept coming to my mind!

Recently Charlie Chaplin’s one of the movie turn into a global phenomenon for time travel. A lady is passing in front of the camera and she is holding something to her ear and seems like she is talking with that thing. Interestingly this video revealed just couple of weeks ago, since 1920s nobody ever noticed this fact. I don’t wish to talk about the possibility of time travel but I would like to warn for a similar situation.

Nowadays electric cars promoted as something “new” and many people think that they are new technology. Actually they are not! It is a really old technology older than the mobile phone in Chaplin’s movie. In 1899 Ferdinand Porsche produced the first hybrid vehicle on earth. The wheel were the engine, there is no transmission. And it was producing around seven horse powers in 1899! Also it was four wheel drive!

The system is very basic; wheels are the engines, energy comes from battery and battery is charged by petrol engine. Very simple and effective technology. Interesting the Audi A1 e-tron uses the same technology platform. 110 years has passed and this car is not available yet!

If one day a video appears in YouTube and tells, there is a time traveller in Ferdinand Porsche’s video, don’t believe it. We just forgot what have done in 110 years ago!

Note: Toyota Pruis uses a different system, petrol engine can engage with during the drive and also acts as a generator. Ferdinand’s Porsche concept excludes petrol engine from the drive train.

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Charlie Chaplin, Porsche

How to write a car blog?

Many people are asking how long it takes to write an article in my blog. And I always say, it doesn’t take more than half an hour but their face shows that they are not satisfied with the answer. For this reason, I took a video of yesterday’s post and upload on YouTube. The original video is 7 minutes and 26 seconds long but it is too long and too boring and I converted it to sixteen times faster frame rate and it became 26 28 seconds :)

Italian Passion, German Perfektion

I always try to highlight the passion and soul in Italian cars. They always have a distinctive character and sometime they can drive you crazy, actually most of the times! To understand the difference between German and Italian cars, I found an excellent example.

There are three videos. One from Mercedes-Benz, one from BMW and one from Lamborghini. The content of the videos are the same, engine production and testing. In German videos, there is no music or anything, camera was recording the production with no effects or anything. Just recording what really happening! Technically very nice video but boring but the German engines are the state of the art technology. They are the best engines on earth. Okay some of their engines are not that good but the ones in these videos are excellent :)

On the other hand Lamborghini’s video is expressing the passion and the sensation of the Lamborghini brand. The content of the video is the same, engine production. Hopefully Lamborghini did not lose its soul despite it Germany owner.

Don't buy Winter Tyres!

Winter tyres, in UK this sounds a bit weird. What is it for? Many people are saying this and they are right. For eighteen years in UK history, they did not see proper snow so they did not have a solid reason to buy winter tyre. However during last two years, the white thing that comes from the sky became a huge problem. And people started to wonder, is there something for snow?

Continental tyres UK Twitter page is working really hard to increase the attention towards winter tyre and my journalist also publishing posts in twitter to increase the awareness. But the result is not very satisfying, I talked with many people and they all say “it is expensive”. Yes, car is not something expensive and you bought it from one-pound store. And winter tyres perceived as expensive. This sounds interesting but it is the ugly truth.

Similar story happened in Turkey also, many people were saying a tyre cannot change the way car goes on snow. And they ignored, after many bad incidents now everyone is rushing to replace their tyres on winter.

I can understand financial pressure of buying four extra tyres and people did not see the real difference between winter tyres and summer tyres. Instead of trying to increase their awareness for winter tyres, let people learn by their selves! For that reason I would like to share the “advantages” of not to buy winter tyres!

First of all; if you have problem with manual cars and stall your car all the time don’t buy winter tyres because you don’t have to worry about the clutch in snow. You will just leave the clutch and car will not go anywhere despite the engine is still working!

One of the other important advantages for avoiding winter tyres is to understand the meaning of friction. Because; while your car is sliding nicely without responding to your controls, you will learn the friction differences between snow and dry!

This sliding opportunity will also help you to make new friendship. Forget Facebook and Twitter, they are for summer times :) When your car started to slip with no control, it will hit somewhere. This is very basic, every objects hits somewhere to stop! So, sliding will not last forever and you will hit to a vehicle or an object or some other places. In the end some people will come to help you or the other drive come to express own nice feelings to you. But you will make this friendship instant, no private message, no wall posting! Directly, face-to-face. But I cannot guarantee how long and how will last.

As a result of sliding and meeting with a new people, you might need to call some numbers. Of course, not for reservation in a restaurant. You will be calling emergency number to report the incident. And you will be able to calculate how quick an ambulance can arrive after your phone call in winter while you are shaking from cold. Also you will experience the privilege to attend a car with siren and colourful light and that is called ambulance. You will be the fastest moving vertical person on street!

If you are lucky, you will have a nice conversation with the insurance company and then call your “new” friends and then go to service and this will repeat for quite long time. If you are not that lucky, you can measure the love of your friends through their visit in hospital. And also you will have chance to taste hospital food, learn about the problems of health system.

If you do not wish to experience this stupid story, go and buy winter tyres. They are much cheaper than all of these and it will help you to make better friendship with no anger involved :)

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Continental, Mercedes

New BMW 6 Series Coupe, hoppss that's a Cabrio!

In my blog I don’t like to talk about new cars and their features, because you can find all these information nearly in everywhere. However sometimes there are some exceptions like new BMW 6 Series. Last week BMW revealed the pictures of new 6 Series cabrio, not coupe! Usual car companies reveal the coupe models first and later they reveal the cabrio. This time BMW did the opposite and revealed the cabrio!

It will have all the BMW technology which you can find in 7 Series. Active steering, active something, active that thing. You can read the details from their press release. The distinctive thing with the new 6 Series is the interior. Usually BMW does not offer this good interior, okay BMW is a luxury brand it is not Aston Martin! Let’s be reasonable, BMW is also producing something called 1 Series! This time they changed everything in this segment. The interior is exquisite, even the Bentley Continental GT does not offer this beautiful interior design. Also the material combination is excellent, nowadays car manufacturers place an aluminium which was left unused in warehouse and offer as something interesting. Always you can understand that the metal part attached to interior is to create a more luxury impression, which never does! New BMW 6 Series interior is a very good example for how to combine different materials in a harmony and don’t create any irritating look.

Actually I don’t mind the engine size or acceleration performance with this interior is good to hinder the technical facts!

Press Release 

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BMW

Which will extend more? Porsche vs. Louis Vuitton

Car and fashion brands share similar symptoms in terms of marketing. They all try to charge more for with new products, prices are over-priced and they love to extend the product line. When it comes to product line extension nobody can compete with Porsche 911 range. Thanks to Porsche AG, 911 is the most extended car line on earth. Now there are 20 different 911s, I know that each model is targeting some particular customer group. Each car expresses a different feeling and etc, etc, etc. Basically, Porsche has lots of potential customers and Porsche does not wish to lose them :) So they introduce every kind of 911 to catch each niche segment. Actually they are pretty good at this though! Even though I don’t like it in terms of emotions but it works well to generate cash.

I noticed the same thing with Louis Vuitton also, they have lots of hand bags. Come one they do the same thing! And some of them are really ugly and expensive, who is buying those things !?! I am sure if I ask LV or anyone interested in fashion will give very good reason for each bag like reasons for twenty different 911s. From the LV perspective; whatever you do, do it with LV bag! Reasonable and good strategy and turn product range into mass :)

In my opinion the best 911 is the Turbo and the best LV is the suitcase :)

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Porsche, LV 

BMW M1 with depressed horses !!!

I always find something in Mercedes-Benz cars funny, either their design or their specifications or their media footages. But this time I found the most ridiculous thing of 2010 from BMW! BMW made introduce the king of ridiculousness in automotive industry and a great opportunity for grey market dealers. As you know that 1 Series coupe will have an M model which was a rumour for very long time. BMW was reluctant to introduce this car as a result of overlapping with M3. But they changed their mind and they will introduce it.

The funny thing with this car is the horsepower. US and Europe models always have a difference horse powers due to US’s emission regulation and this was something very normal. I think BMW felt very sorry for this gap and they added 111 horses more to US version. Yes, US spec BMW M1 is 451 horse powers. On the other hand Europe spec is only 340 horse powers. They have same single turbo three litre engine known as N54B3OTO. But US version has different software for the engine and pumps more power.

Let me tell you what will happen. Jeremy Clarkson will say this thing on TV and make fun of people who have ordered Europe spec M1. Then people will go to BMW dealers and dealers will say NO, you cannot have this car here. Then people will go to grey market to order US spec version. The second scenario is, people will go to BMW dealer again and ask them to upgrade the software, BMW will say NO. Then people will go to privately owned workshop and upgrade the software and void the warranty :)

Basically, BMW release those kept 111 horses to European model also :)

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BMW

Key, just a Key!

For quite long time, car keys became so boring. Most of the look very similar to VW and the rest of them are quite boring. Despite the improvement in design the car keys did not change that much. You buy a Ferrari and you end up with a stupid looking key. The Mercedes has the change key, commercial to Maybach! BMW offers a very nicely designed key. The most interesting and the post came was introduced by Mercedes as usual! This is matching their brand identity. Swarovski crystal covered key for Japanese market. It is not offering anything more just more crystals and bigger price tag!

The most cleaver key I have ever seen is from Land Rover. I know you won’t be that excited for a car but in daily basis, the stupidly designed key can turn your life into hell. Especially in case of emergency! Unless they don’t cause, they look terrible. I didn’t see a key which is offering the both. I am sure no one will ever change own car for a key but they supposed to look good and function seamlessly. And Land Rover made it, just watch the video and you will the cleaver design. Especially replacing the battery looks very easy! That’s one of the most annoying thing in a car key.

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Land Rover, Bentley, Mercedes

What is torque?

Everyone knows what horsepower means is (actually we don’t, and we just pretend we knew it), but there is a big speculations about the torque! Most of the people define it as that’s something, doing something and that something turns that thing and something moves this thing. Actually many people has no idea and that’s normal because it has a very complicated definition for most of the people. (The definition of torque is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist.) I know you are more confused!

Eventually I found something which describes the meaning of torque and its advantage. Thanks to Fifth Gear team (Jason Plato and Tiff Needell) you can understand what torque really means. This time in their dog-fight session, they drove Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Audi Q7 V12 TDi. The Q7 has a lot of torque, 1000 nm! This means, it is clinically powerful, thanks to diesel engine. Porsche Cayenne Turbo has only 700 nm of torque. This might sound small but it is still huge amount.

If you are planning to pull a car with brakes on, try to pull with Q7 V12 TDi. Actually this is the only Audi which can be buyable :)

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Audi, Porsche, Fifth Gear

Hard VW vs. Soft VW

VW EOS, this car has never been a big sensation in automotive industry. I don’t know why it could not manage to receive enough attention. Most of the people never heard of it either. VW’s metal roof, coupe / cabrio model! Well, that’s a SLK for normal people :) But normal people did not like it that much. I didn’t like it either, Murat Günak designed the EOS but it was not a car like Peugeot 206 or Mercedes SLK. Those cars were also designed by Günak too! But they look much better. EOS was a very boring car and sales proofed that either.

Eventually VW revealed the face-lifted version which looks much better the current model. I am more optimistic for EOS this time. Interior is much better designed also. Interestingly VW was not happy enough with EOS and they announced cabrio Golf! I am sure you will be asking what’s wrong with this. Honestly I tried to find a matching example for this weird decision but I couldn’t make it.

EOS is a cabrio car which is positioned in Golf’s segment (C Segment) and the whole marketing strategy is based on offering a coupe / cabrio Golf alternative. Now VW will offer cabrio Golf, that would be a better alternative for Golf cabrio, instead of EOS. I think they will use soft top and probably a bit cheaper (I never seen a cheap Golf) and they will solve the problem.

EOS will be expensive and hard top cabrio, Golf cabrio will be cheaper soft top cabrio. VW will say this is a very good way of differentiating the products. However the reality will be, EOS and Golf cabrio will eat their market share as a result of overlapping with each other. In some market, VW will not import EOS or Golf cabrio. Dealers will have problem to differentiate the cars, consumers will be confused and this chain reaction will go forever.

I have nothing to say! Just produce it and we all have something to write :)

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VW, World Car Fans

A detailed explanation for the problem of German Cars

For very long time I was trying understand what is wrong with German cars. I didn’t make mistake while writing, German cars. There is always something missing with them, I could not understand but German cars never have the same taste with Italian cars. Of course, I am not licking cars to identify their differences. I am pretty sure that all German cars would taste the same :)

And recently I found the problem with German cars. The huge problem which irritates me for very long and irritates many other people, I am using sales figures of Italian cars as a proof! German cars are offering everything; perfection, design (not all of them), efficient, luxury, perfect, gray, very gray, light gray, very dark gray and this goes forever. Germans cars are doing what you told them to do! Actually if a German car goes wrong, it terribly goes wrong. This happened in 2003-2004 with Mercedes E Class, electronic brake system and electronic control modules of C Class. Anyway, they don’t cause trouble anymore. The main thing is German cars are doing what they are supposed to do and they do not questionize. They just are doing it!

A German car always handles well, the automatic screen wipers always works with the same amount of rain, engine always makes the same sound, all the parts inside the car have the same millimetric distance within each other. This combination of perfection obsession is not matching with human being because we are not perfect and we want things different. I think the best explanation for German cars is they are like trains. They are doing what they are supposed to do, trains cannot change travel anywhere else than railway and they always follow a route.

The Italian cars are like pizza, each pizza is a unique dish. It is nearly impossible to have the same pizza, even if you manage to have the same one you cannot eat in the same way. All the mozzarella cheese will try to go somewhere else, you will try to make some weird moves to eat the slice and some vegetables will fell on your trousers while you are trying to clean your trousers, your elbow will hit to pizza. Basically each time you try to eat an Italian food, you will have a new adventure like in Italian cars. Each Italian car is totally unique, I don’t know how they manage to do it but they are excellent at producing each car unique. There is no identical twin of a Ferrari 458 or Alfa Romeo MiTo or Fiat 500. Even if the factory is robotized, their supplier may not be robotized and their production technique might be influence the employees emotional conditions.

Therefore each Italian car is like a sculpture, you cannot find the same one. And Italian cars do not react as you wished, try to control a Ferrari 599 GTO. Jeremy Clarkson tried to do it in “Italian Job” and he failed, try to control an Alfa MiTo diesel. The electronic systems will help you but the car will control you. You will do what the car is ordering you!

And lastly British cars; very basic definition, there is always something is missing. In order to proof this, just look at British taps! They have separate taps for hot and cold water. You cannot find this in other part of the world. British engineers never connect hot and cold water together, you either burn your hands or freeze your hand. There is no balance and you can face with this ugly truth even in the most prestigious hotels or in houses. Everything looks excellent, suddenly you want wash your hand, and you burn your hands!

You can find this in British cars also, everything is excellent. Design, materials, engines but you cannot have a door closing aid in a Bentley Azure. This is a very basic technology from Germans, when your door is not fully closed the hydraulic system closes for you. But you cannot have this in a Bentley Azure! This car costs more than a country and you have to close your door properly by yourself. But still I like British cars they are combination of Mr. Bean and Paul Smith shirt!

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Mercedes, Pizza Express, Aston Martin, Deutsche Bahn, Maserati, Paul Smith