Passion of a lifetime!!

Passion for Automobiles was there since the time I can remember, I guess I realized it when my uncle who was a grad student took me to his friend’s bookstore to pick some kids books to calm myself down for the upcoming summer holidays. He asked me to pick something up as he chatted with his friend and waited for me to return with my selections.

As I approached the cashiers desk my uncle took the books from my hand was shocked to see an issues of the venerable Auto India magazine among a bunch of kiddie books. he started laughing and asked me why I picked these and I replied “for this” pointing at the beautiful center spread of the then new Ducati monster in all its blood red glory.

He never bought me the magazine and I never forgave him for that and I never lost the desire for everything automobile. For a kid who grew up in rural Kerala with a passion for product designing and photography (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanu29/). I guess getting to do what I love with my love and occasionally getting to use my heavy right foot is as good as it gets.

The New Leapin Cat!!

 

With all excitement and a great deal of fanfare TATA owned Jaguar has launched their flagship offering, luckily there is no more name changes and classic XJ name is retained.

Design wise the car is nothing but stunning the new generation of jaguars truly pay homage to the spirit of the leaping cat and embody the feline design principles. I am so glad that jag finally decided to move forward and enter the 20th century with its design principles as firm finally had the balls to challenge holly German trio as a serious contender.

I asked my 19 year old cousin (whom I nicknamed “watever”) what she thought about the interior and her reply was perfect “ugh! it looks like rich English dudes office, only modern”. I think that what Jaguar designers had in mind unlike the Germans where “rich nerd’s office” seems to be the term.

The only debatable design aspect I found about the XJ was the darkened C-pillar design which I don't see as a big deal. If you are so sick of it just order the car in black and voila! problem solved. I just loved the CAT and I think other than an aging Quattroporte there is no competition for this car as a exquisitely designed Executive Sedan.

(Pictures Courtesy CARWALLS.COM)

My fav deals site.....

http://www.deals2buy.com/

Finally the new Audi TT is here and I am glad that Audi took the sensible path and didn’t meddled with an already success full formula. But I think carmakers are missing the whole point with these new models.

When I first saw the Audi’s prototype of the original TT I was shocked and impressed. It was beautiful and aggressive and I really loved it, mind you it was not a great drive. But people love it because it had a lot of presence and it was different.

I really didn’t feel any of these emotions when I saw the picture of the new TT. It was just another plain it didn’t have character and that’s going to be the greatest problem of the new Audi TT.

May be I am expecting too much but design was the only reason why people chose it over a BMW 3 series coupe. Other than looks the Beemer is amore perfect car. But now Audi is also promising the TT will be a fine handling car, good but I bet it doesn’t have half the character of the old one. And that was the selling point of the TT. When I saw the Audi they used in the movie iRobot I really had high hopes about the new TT but Audi has really let me down in this case. I am adding pics of the car in the movie for you to see.

The new AMV8

Finally after a lot of teasing the Aston Martin v8 vantage is out and boy oh boy what a car. All the test drive reports are saying that it is brilliant and the closest thing to the new 911.

I have seen the interiors of the AMV8 and I think it is the best in the world and the best thing is that it looks as if it was crafted painstakingly by an artist. I just heard one of that v8s yesterday and its one of the best this side of the old Ferrari V8 bellow. And I am from the school of thought which believes the way a car sounds sells more cars than top speed or acceleration figures

I am so happy the company with the sexist name in the sports car world has finally have cars to match up. Way to go Aston!!!

New Jag XK

I really loved the old jaguar XK. It may not be brilliant dynamically but what the hell it looks hot. There’s some sexy British charm to it which appeals to my colonial hangover. But alas every good thing should come to an end and I heard that finally ford is going to replace it with the new XK. Now I am sure that it is going to be a brilliant car and brilliant to drive. But some how it looks more German than British. I know that jaguar is trying to cut all the middle age flab associated with its name. But in trying to achieve that they are alienating themselves from the same britishness which sets them apart from the Porsches and BMWs. I think in trying to be young they created a car which has a cross eye like the Morgan 8. Now every body knows agility and lean built are the characteristics associated with young age not cross eyes. If jaguar wanted to go young it should have gone back to the old jag classics like the E-type or D-type

Sorry jaguar the previous XK had the old world British charm of the e –type in its looks. The replacement looks like a sports car designed by board of directors instead of an artist.

Want a classic go to BMW

Ok! So you are on the verge of resurrecting one of the historic automobile marques and you want the design to stay true to the original. Guess which design team to turn up to. My advice is to give BMW the job. Agreed Bangle is screwing up BMW designs but look at the other cars developed by BMW. Take the new Rolls Royce, the Mini, the Range Rover and the Rover 75.

All these cars turned out to be beautifully made and their designs loyal to the originals. I agree that the Rover 75 was a failure but we are talking about designs and not about vehicle dynamics and handling. And on the basis of design the rover was purely classy and quintessentially rover and the interiors pure British class and the best this side of the Rolls. Compare it to the very successful Jaguar S-type, ugh! Now the case of Range Rover, it was so good Ford decided to keep it and source the engine from BMW after buying Land Rover from BMW.

When first seen not everybody liked the new Rolls Royce Phantom. But a Rolls Royce design is not about beauty but about presence and the phantom has loads of it. And as far as I think the mini is an honest reproduction of the original. A brilliantly chic design.

Now let’s compare other giants trying the same thing. Mercedes came up with the horrible looking may Bach. Ok I know it is the luxury king but look at that front end with an omelet for head lamps. Then there is VW with Bentley, come o just look at the model line up. The continental GT and spur can’t hold a candle to the brilliant designs of the green label or Azure which are based on the old designs.

So congrats BMW design team. Give yourself a pat on the back. You have done a great job of redefining these legends.

Hi everybody. I am an automobile enthusiast and an avid follower of car and bike designs all over the world. There are some interesting facts which I have noticed in the last one year. Korean car makers where once ridiculed by their European counterparts about their “over curvy” car designs. Now look at the modern car designs coming out of Hyundai, Kia and Daewoo and you can safely say that they learned the trick of car design. I just saw the picture of the Hyundai accent at the Frankfurt show and I first thought it was a fiat or a lancia. It looks really classy and clean lines replaced the usual curves of the Hyundai. Also the new Daewoo Chevrolet lancetti or optra whatever it is named in your country (this GM naming system is really getting on my patience) is nothing short of stunning in its looks (it has to be it was designed in Italy).

Anyway what I am saying is that they are now much better looking and just check where their European counterparts are going. The European car makers mainly BMW and Mercedes Benz finding old Korean designs fascinating and are incorporating old Korean styles into their cars, I give the new S-class and the bangled BMWs as examples. I really hope Audi doesn’t follow the design path of them. And I really wish merc and BMW will go back to their design boards and make better looking cars.