Recent Articles
Audi’s Pre-Giuliani Tour of New York, New York
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img via YouTube ::: Audi 90 TV advert
SMUG doesn’t quite fit. Über smug, perhaps?
On the heels of the truly disasterous Eighties – a decade fraught with unintended acceleration and much fiscal heartache, there’s something personal in this Audi commercial’s jab at “costly lawsuits” and snide quips about the City’s motto, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”
Aimed squarely at the US analog TV sets, the minute long spot pitching the Audi 90 was a product of its time. Which is to say it pre-dates Giuliani’s shake down of the NYC’s army of curbside window washers (circa 1990) and white-washed Times Square.
Perhaps we were less easily offended when a commercial took shots at cartoonish stereotypes (Foul mouthed grandmothers? Fat Mets fan gorging on burger?).
I wonder how many New Yorkers were moved to shop Audi following this spot? Not many, me thinks. But then again, it probably got rave reviews in Beantown.
1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud “Chinese Eye” Drophead Coupe. And it’s for sale.
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Cooper Classics Collection ::: Rolls-Royce Chinese Eye Convertible
IN the (swinging) Sixties, horn rimmed glasses were all the rage.
So, too, were fins, rockets, and a zest for the unusual. Elvis, anyone? Rolls-Royce wasn’t immune to experimentation that stuck an impertinent tongue out at the staid status quo. Hence – the 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud “Chinese Eye” Continental Drophead Coupé.
Powered by the exceptionally long-lived V8 (powered the Bentley Arnage) and shifted by a four-speed autobox, the Chinese Eye weighed in at a rotund 4,558 lbs, every bit as stout as the Silver Cloud III saloon.
That said, in every way that the sedan’s rolling fenders conveyed a billowing ball gown, the Chinese Eye seemed a trim, lean skirt that cut tight across the lady’s legs – like some Oleg Cassini number that Jackie O. would wear.
Mulliner Park’s straight edged body gave a lightness to the DHC while the diagonal sets of sealed beam Lucases and tri-tail lamp clusters added that jolly bit of sport.
Chassis No. LCSC35B on offer by NY’s Cooper Classics Collection, lived its entire life as an East Coast ride; calling Park Ave and Easthampton home. Eighty-six thousand miles seem just right for a collectible in near-original condition that’s eclipsed the half-century mark.
That the terribly un-PC “Chinese Eye” moniker does little to restrain the $195,000 ask, stands as testament to the rare Silver Cloud’s enduring appeal. At least for some, that is. Not everyone’s a fan of horn rimmed shades.
[Linked: CCC]
Sir Colin’s Lotus Unveils Concepts and Cosworth Connection @ Geneva
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Lotus Cars, Ltd. ::: Lotus Concept Cars Geneva
LOTUS appears to be the little sports car maker that not only could, but in fact, just may…
Making waves at the Geneva Auto Show – an event this year packed with so many new developments from across the luxury automotive market as to make us crosseyed- Lotus has issued two concepts – the Evora 414E Plugin Hybrid and Evora Carbon Concept – plus announced a promising new partnership with Cosworth for your consideration.
The marque that the late and charismatic Colin Chapman built now stands next to the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, and even Koeniggsegg for bringing to the ideas marketplace a concept that aims to deliver performance with lofty promises of hybrid efficiency and eco-friendliness to satiate even the loudest of European communists green parties.
Or does it? The answer is a definitive maybe.
In a slap at Tesla, the Lotus Evora 414E (plug-in) Hybrid Concept is the British stab at a plug-in roadster but offers modest performance (47 hp, tri-pot), and even more modest range (35 miles on batteries only). And that’s not even with playing your favorite tracks from The Who on the in-dash.
Some have noted that even the concept’s color choice leaves something to be desired , but these are all small quibbles in the face of slow, but sure progress to success, people!
Considering that for the past decade, Lotus sold light and lighter variants of one car (Elise/Exige) and sold a lovely, if fairly dated Giugaro penned Ferrari rival for the previous three (Esprit), it’s right that Team Lotus is putting as many irons in the fire as it damn well can.
Bentley Driver’s Must Read: Bentley Continental, Corniche, & Azure 1951-2002
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Veloce ::: Bentley Continental, Corniche, & Azure 1951-2002
LISTED fourth down on a roster that reads like a mid-20th Century Who’s Who , American racing legend Briggs Cunningham took delivery of BCA4 (built expressly for him without emblems or mascots and in right-hand drive by coachbuilder exemplar, H.J. Mulliner) on what must’ve been a beautiful summer day in 1952.
The car that Mr. Cunningham received was the newly minted Bentley R Type Continental -Britain’s first post-war supercar; a unique-to-Bentley 2+2 grand tourer; a classic today.
Martin Bennett chronicles Mr. Cunningham’s superlative car and others in Bentley Continental, Corniche & Azure 1951-2002 published by Veloce and distributed by Motorbooks.
Two hundred and fifty two pages (256, if you count the three full-page RR/Bentley service adverts at the back), the UK turned Aussie native’s work is by all accounts a well documented history of postwar Bentley coupes up until the introduction of the VW Phaeton based GTs.
In exchange for this informational over-abundance (including such finite details as how Bentley management chose to fit the seats of the magnificent 90s Azure into the Continentals R and T for ease of ingress and egress), and perhaps with the type of customer in mind, the publisher demands a Bentleyesque price – $150 suggested retail.
With razor focus, Mr. Bennett chronicles the only Bentleys to be visually and somewhat mechanically unique of their Rolls-Royce stablemates (except for the 70s & 80s Corniche) – a rarity in the annals of the two marque’s long-entwined history.
Lacking the comprehensiveness of Anthony Bird & Ian Hallows’s The Rolls-Royce Motor Car and the Bentley since 1931, but similar in grace of presentation (art deco titles with smarty organized listings) Mr. Bennett’s work will in presentation and informational offerings appeal directly to those precious few who count themselves privileged to own a Continental, Corniche, or Azure.
Mr. Bennett stolidly delivers the essential aspects of the Continental as he describes in the text’s introduction:
“The appellation ‘Continental’ is perhaps the most evocative in Bentley history, conjuring as it does visions of fast motoring to the South of France, or through the Alps Maritimes, with silken power clothed in supremely elegant coachwork, and drivers and passengers enveloped in the heady aroma of Connolly hides and the rich glow of fine woodwork.”
Mr. Cunningham doubtless thought the same of his first Continental.
Ed. note: Motorbooks furnished the reviewer (yours truly) with a copy of this prodigious text.
2010 MKS: Would You Know It’s A Lincoln?
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Lincoln Cars ::: 2010 Lincoln MKS
LET’S pretend that the famous rectangular star badge on the front quarter panel doesn’t exist.
By any other visual means, could you tell what make of sedan we’re looking at? After all, there’s more than a hint of late 90s Eagle Vision in those generic headlamps and seen-it front fascia.
Or is that Saturn? Olds Alero?
No matter, what of the soft arc of chrome that wraps nicely into the c-pillar creating a half-circle?
We’ve seen that before, too; most notably from the VW-Audi Group. Oh, alright, let’s give BMW a little love because there’s a hint of a Hoffmeister’s kink in that special way the fake chrome hooks southwest into the door’s shoulderline.
I’m completely stumped as to the tail lamp assembly and cropped trunk. An early 00’s VW Passat crossed with a Lancia Delta?
You see, there are no visual cues that the MKS or any of the new three letter modeled cars sold as “Lincolns” are in fact, Lincolns. Truth be told, except for the continuity of cars that Ford’s now marginalized to fleet sales, namely, the Town Car, there’s no hint of Lincoln soul left in any of the models.
And by soul, I mean those heydays which were the streamlined yet boxy 60s. The Continentals of the drop top and suicide door. Cars drawn so simply, a kid could… well, you know.
Which brings us back to that original nut, if the famous rectangular star badge no longer existed, would anyone really notice? Or would we just mistake other cars from the 90s for new Lincolns?
Billionaire’s Challenge: Who Can Take on HUMMER?
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img GM ::: HUMMER sale
TALK about having us by the balls.
How awful would it have been for a state supervised, Chinese company to take over the symbolic brand of ‘Merican motor machismo? It’s not like we, the American public, owe Beijing 3/4ths of one trillion dollars or anything.
No, for all the visceral, anti-PC, pro-meat head symbolism that the off-roading, quasi military division trumpets, it is worth keeping HUMMER around. They’re like Tonka toys for adult males who should know better.
So, as GM “winds down” the division and other deep pocketed buyers weigh the pros and cons of picking up what the Chinese regulators turned down, it’s worth understanding HUMMER’s raison d’etre in the market.
You have a sense of humor and a distinctly Hollywood capacity to suspend disbelief when experiencing a Humvee. Yours has only driven the H3 “Alpha”- the Napoleonic model of the off-roading brand’s lineup, selling alongside the granddaddy H1 (born out of Gulf War necessity and discontinued recently) and the H2, a slightly shrunken and more comfy version of the original.
The H3 was an unsteady truck on the road; behaving in a straigh-tline as if it were a backpacker wobbling on rollerblades for the first time. However, the moment you piloted the H3 off-road, the story changed completely.
What felt like a silly, jiggly ride on asphalt, became a fully competent and compliant ride on dirt tracks; absorbing massive ditches and mounds like a sponge. In the field, the H3 took on a penguin’s grace as it waddled off land and rocketed into the sea.
This is an outdoors brand – much like Jeep – except more exclusive, more flamboyant, and perhaps more macho (thought that’s often viewed as “driver’s over-compensation” by the marque’s detractors).
It’ll take an entrepreneur connected with the company, a sportsman with something to prove, who has deep pockets to front the General the $150 million necessary for acquisition and then at least triple that figure to run it right.
What? Did someone suggest Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and three of his closest venture capitalist friends?
Clock’s ticking…