Category: Cars

New Range Rover SV Coupe

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date March 26, 2018

Since the Range Rover was first introduced, we haven’t seen a coupe version recently, despite the fact that the initial Range Rover was a coupe. Why coupe? The answer is very simple. A short wheel base works better off-road. In particular, when you try to go over an obstacle, the shorter wheel base makes your life easier. That’s why the Lada Niva and the Mercedes G-Wagon are offered with short wheel base versions.

The reason why Land Rover offers a coupe Range Rover is not for improved off-roading. That’s very obvious given the standard 23-inch wheels! I really don’t know any other passenger vehicle with standard 23-inch wheels except buses and trucks.

Long story short, the Range Rover SV Coupe is just an expensive limited edition. Unfortunately the Land Rover team did not wish to revive the off-road DNA of the Range Rover with this coupe. The proof? The body is lowered by 8mm! When you add this up with the 23-inch wheels, the only off-roading you can do will be climbing the pavements in Mayfair, London. Just forget any other off-roading experience with this Range Rover.

The SV Coupe is powered by a 5-lt V8 Supercharged petrol engine with 565-HP and 700Nm. The transmission is an 8-speed ZF auto, and this monster needs 5.3-sec to reach 100 km/h! The top speed 257 km/h!

What about the technology? Like the original Range Rover, it offers nothing close to the Audi Q7, the Bentley Bentayga or the aging Mercedes GLE/GLS class! There are laser and LED headlights but the rest is outdated technology from 2012!

Overall, the Range Rover SV Coupe looks amazing, and has revived the real Range Rover. The performance is mind-blowing. The interior is the best interior in its class. However, the lack of driving assistance systems and semi-autonomous driving features just make this car outdated from the beginning.

Keep in mind that the SV Coupe is limited to 999 vehicles with a starting price tag of £240,000!

Photo Credit // Land Rover

Tags Land Rover, New Range Rover, Range Rover, Range Rover SV Coupe

Cars

Porsche Introduces Blockchain to Cars

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date March 14, 2018

Your next Porsche will be a part of the blockchain technology. Unfortunately, although you won’t be able to buy a Porsche with your bitcoins, you will be able to benefit from the blockchain technology.

So what is blockchain? It is a decentralised protocol for data transactions between partners. However, the decentralised word is a bit questionable. According to Vice Magazine, in order to decentralise all payment transactions throughout the world, anyone who has a credit card should get a $10,000 HP Workstation to handle the 400-billion transaction per year. Basically, big banks and cloud companies will handle the blockchain for us.

The benefit of the blockchain? Every change is recorded in chronologically-arranged data blocks, making it transparent and tamper-proof. However, according to Vice Magazine and many people from the industry, nothing is 100% tamper-proof!

Literally, blockchain is theoretically decentralised but ultimately it will be the same as what we already have, but more secure and faster.

Who else is using the blockchain? At the moment, startup companies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Still, you can’t buy a Porsche with your digital money.

What has Porsche to do with the blockchain? They tested how to lock and unlock a vehicle via an app with the blockchain technology. This provided temporary access authorisation and new business models based on encrypted data logging. This could be developed further to improve autonomous driving functions.

Next? Your Porsche becomes part of the blockchain, making a direct offline connection possible – that is, without a diversion through a server. As Porsche says, how can you access something that is living in a connected world when you are not connected? IS THIS WHAT YOU MEAN? Basically, this is like swimming inside an empty swimming pool.

Good news, you can unlock and lock your car in 1.6-sec through the app, which is six times faster than before. And 1.6 times slower than just pressing the unlock button!

Another piece of good news is that all the activities of your vehicle can be documented. If you skipped having a service and still managed to get the service book stamped, you will be caught. If you modified your Porsche 911 using an Amazon purchase and destroy the engine, they will know it. These can and will be seen by the app.

Porsche will also offer access authorisation by the vehicle owner that can work remotely. Basically, you can be a selfish person and never share your car with the blockchain.

There is something cool about the blockchain. There will be faster, easier and safer authentication at the charging station for your car for any payment. Basically, you can pay to charge your car quicker than before. By the way, most universities in the UK let people charge their car for free.

As the blockchain system works with smart contracts, this means you will be part of the mining business. Smart contracts are automated contracts that are triggered by transactions based on a previously defined condition, and you need miners to confirm this agreement. What happens next? Miners make digital money! Actually, your car will be powered by the XAIN energy efficient mining system, and you will be part of the miner club. Basically, you will make digital money as well.

As the mining systems generate lots of heat, I guess your cooling system will be busy cooling down your XAIN mining system rather than your engine.

Overall, I am happy to see the blockchain technology being implemented by Porsche within the automotive industry. As the Porsche is a part of the VW Group, we will definitely see this technology in a VW Polo quite soon. Despite my fun approach to the blockchain, it is the future of connectivity. Of course, there are weaknesses and problems, but this always happens. Our existing TCP/IP based internet is not perfect, but it is part of our lives and we accept it. The blockchain will be like this in the near future.

To be honest, I don’t care whether or not your Porsche 911 will mine digital currency, but we will benefit in the future from the easy, fast and secure solutions provided by the blockchain.

More details can be found in Porsche’s official press release
https://press.porsche.co.uk/prod/presse_pag/PressResources.nsf/Content?ReadForm&languageversionid=835354&pid=2228D45FD969D3BCC12578CC0047E049

Photo Credits // Porsche

Tags Blockchain, Porsche

Cars

Autosport International 2018 #asi18 Models

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date March 13, 2018

In case you missed the Autosport International 2018 and you were looking forward to see the event. You are at the right place. I will be posting the all event on my blog!

As always, I am starting with the Autosport International models!

Tags Autosport International, Autosport International 2018, Autosport Models

Cars

The New Rolls-Royce Phantom at HR Owen

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date March 4, 2018

The eight generation Rolls-Royce Phantom was released last summer. I spotted it at the HR Owen dealership in Mayfair, London. It is not very common to see a new Phantom. The previous generation was revealed in 2002 and it has taken 15 years to create the new generation. Unlike the last time, Rolls-Royce has designed its own modular platform that will be used in future Rolls-Royce models, starting with the Cullinan SUV.

Despite the in-house modular platform, the engine, the gearbox and the driving assistance systems are from BMW!

Although we don’t really associate Rolls-Royce with the word ‘light’, the new Phantom is lighter and stronger than past models. However, don’t expect a full carbon-fibre body. There are some cool features as well. The Magic Carpet Ride is something unique to the Phantom. Stereo cameras scan the road surface and adjust the suspension to correct for road imperfections up to 100 km/h. Bear in mind though, the Audi A8 and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class offer similar systems, and they keep working at higher speeds.

In case you are looking for an ultra-silent car, the new Phantom houses more than 130-kg of sound insulation. Even the tyres are designed with a ‘Silent Seal’ thanks to Continental, and they reduce tyre noise by 9db!

The Gallery on the dashboard is a great piece of design. However, only the front passenger can enjoy the view of The Gallery!

The interior is massive, I can’t even describe it in words. It is really really large. And this massive interior is combined with a massive exterior. This Phantom is really really tall. When you compare with other ‘large’ cars, they look like a MINI next to the new Phantom. If you wish to tell people that you have made it, the new Phantom is the answer.

Lastly, I really like the electrically-closing doors. Now you can just touch a button and the door closes.

Tags HR Owen, Rolls Royce, Rolls Royce Phantom

Cars

Uber vs Car Finance

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date February 14, 2018

Uber is the latest contribution to our lives from the tech industry that shakes the grounds of automotive industry. Having your personal driver is a great concept and also wide range of vehicle options are making things even better.

The idea is great and works really well. To be honest, I use Uber very often, because it is convenient. You know where your taxi is and when it will arrive from your smartphone. The Uber is a great solution to urban transportation problem. You really don’t need a car, when you can Uber it!

Actually, if you wish to limit your life within the limits of the Uber drivers, this is the best transportation solution for you. Keep in mind, Uber drivers have right to reject your journey, if they don’t want to go somewhere they can’t get a return customer or too far away from the city centre.

Literally, the urban life will be your jungle and literally have no chance to go outside of your Uber zone with a comfort of a car. You might be saying, trains are great for travelling. However, trains can’t stop when you wish to stop and take a photo of that moment and also you are restricted by their schedules and their routes.

Let’s assume you wish to travel somewhere outside of London and the Uber driver decided to accept your journey. You preferred to be driven in a Mercedes-Benz S-Class and pay a massive fee per mile. The scenery looks great, been driven in an S-Class.

However, the long journey may force you to socialise with the driver and you may not be in the mood. Keep in mind, that S-Class covered enough miles to go around the world at least once! This means, the seats you are seating is used by many people and you may not have the same comfort as promised on the Mercedes-Benz website.

In addition, Uber drivers won’t be ticking the all option features of the cars. Nowadays, every car has lots of optional features and if you don’t tick them, what you will get is something slightly better than horse-driven carriage. So, picking up the right options for a car is really important.

If everything goes well, you will pay a small fortune to Uber journey, probably it will be enough to buy a new car. And this journey will be once in your lifetime. That’s fine. You may not wish to discover new places and happy with the urban jungle.

However, if you wish to discover more places with the Uber, it will be easier to buy a stock share of the Uber ad get free rides. This will be cheaper than paying all that Uber rides.

The positive side of using the Uber for long journeys, you will be Uber VIP customers. I have no clue what are the benefits are but they have this service.

Keep in mind, if you end up somewhere with no Uber back for your journey, you will be waiting for a very long time. And Uber will not wait for your all day.

The solution for all these problems can be solved by owning a car. But buying a car is uncool, who buys a car except grandparents. They are big, looks outdated and has lots of buttons to push but neither of them takes a Snapchat selfie.

At this moment, you are trying to upload great scenery photos to your Snapchat and Instagram and probably stuck with the urban jungle.

Owning a car will not tight you with the limits of the Uber, you will find great places to discover. Also, you can still use Uber in case you don’t wish to drive.

So how to buy a car? From Apple? Not yet! However, there are couple of financial solutions designed for your taste. You might be saying, Apple has a special financial system that is unique to them. Actually, no! Apple is using the same financial services to divide your iPhone cost. The same can be applied to your new car.

Keep in mind, cars are redesigned every seven years, you won’t be looking outdated for a very long time.

So, give a try to HSBC Car Finance tools;
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/loans
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/tools-and-guides/loans/financing-a-car

Tags Car Finance, Uber

Cars

Pink Bentley Bentayga at Jack Barclay HR Owen, Mayfair London

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date February 7, 2018

Ettore Bugatti once said that a Bentley racing car is the world’s fastest truck. I think, when he made this statement, he would never have thought that Bentley would make an SUV one day!

A long time after Ettore Bugatti made this statement and Mattel introduced Barbie, Bentley introduced a pink SUV that is capable of doing 300 km/h!

Last month, Bentley’s iconic dealer, Jack Barclay HR Owen, opened its doors after refurbishment. The new interior should be crowned with something really special, and they have done it with a pink Bentley Bentayga.

Bentley had been thinking about making the Bentayga for a very long time, and introduced the first concept vehicle in 2012. I saw it at Goodwood! However, I really wondered how this particular shade of pink ended up in the colour scheme of the Bentley Bentayga.

This is because the Bentayga was really a question mark project for the Bentley, and they were really wondering if people were ready to pay £200,000 for an SUV.

Apparently, people are ready to pay £200,000 for an SUV and even if it is in pink.

At the moment, I am not sure if the pink Bentayga is still available at the HR Owen Mayfair dealership.

Tags Bentley, Bentley Bentayga, HR Owen, Jack Barlcay

Cars

Range Rover Evoque Speed Bump Ad

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date January 19, 2018

The Range Rover Evoque is facing a massive speed bump. A few weeks ago, Land Rover decided to revive the memories of the Evoque in people’s minds through a 1990s-style advertising campaign. The Evoque was a revolutionary vehicle when it was first revealed in 2011, when Spotify wasn’t available to the US market.

After seven years featuring lots of new competitors and the increased importance of driving assistance in automotive industry, the Evoque feels like an outdated SUV that is approaching the end of its product lifecycle. However, Land Rover needs to sell the Evoque. So, they have decided to go back to the 1990s, and connect the brand with the people through a dialup modem.

The speed bump is a proper 1990’s campaign. They placed an exaggerated problem in daily life, and the product (the Evoque) is the only car that is able to overcome the problem. When we were connecting to the internet through a dialup modem, we would have found this campaign very creative and exciting.

However, we live in 2018, and the 1990’s-style campaigns don’t really work. They seem to be working, based on what we can see from the view count and the comments. Yes, the campaign is working! However, can Land Rover sell this Evoque to someone who is a car expert or someone who reads about cars all the time? Of course not!

In the short term you can see positive feedback and high view number. However, what about the long term results? Can this campaign change the decision of someone who is planning to buy the new BMW X3?

Based on my experience, any SUV on the market can easily tackle this problem. Actually, someone who has off road experience with a passenger car can also tackle it as well. When you approach the situation from the right angle, and you have the traction control, the rest is based on your experience. To be honest, a Ford Fiesta Fusion from 2004 can tackle this speed bump as well as the Evoque.

If the Evoque is so great, why didn’t Land Rover approach it directly?

Photo Credit // Land Rover

Tags Evoque, Land Rover, Range Rover Evoque

Cars

The New Aston Martin Vantage

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date December 5, 2017

The new Aston Martin Vantage. It has been a long time since the Vantage was originally introduced. Aston Martin aimed to capture the Porsche 911 market with the Vantage. I assume that they thought making a car louder would convince Porsche 911 owners to buy an Aston Martin. However, things did not go as planned, and Vantage never managed to capture the Porsche 911 market as they wanted to. On the other hand, the Vantage was a smaller scale version of the DB9. Furthermore, the Ford divorce put financial pressure on Aston Martin, and the Vantage couldn’t keep up with the Porsche 911.

A few days ago, Aston Martin revealed the second-generation Vantage. This time, it does not have a significant design resemblance to the other Aston Martins. It actually looks like a Tesla from the front. Despite this resemblance, the new Vantage shares the same engine as the Mercedes AMG GT. In case you wonder how could this happen, the Mercedes-AMG is helping Aston Martin! This is probably because soon Daimler AG will buy Aston Martin and it will become part of the Daimler group, and use all the Mercedes-Benz engines and telematic systems. They will be great for Aston Martin, because the Aston Martin’s technology is stuck in early 2000s!

The new Vantage did not change this tradition. It does not offer any significant or ground-breaking driving assistance systems. Yes, it is a light car, and the drive train is designed by ex-Lotus engineers. It still offers a manual gearbox. However, the era of making a loud engine has passed.

Unfortunately, Aston Martin can’t sustain their business with the “We are luxury and we ignore technology” approach. The new generation will not buy their cars. People look for driving assistance systems, pre-crash systems that can sense a crash before it happens, semi-autonomous driving. I have told this to people in the automotive industry and they always ignore it.

Vantage is not that bad. It offers 100% locking rear-differential and torque vectoring via braking (a similar technology is used in Fords). The weight balance is perfect at 50:50. The rear positioned ZF eight speed automatic makes for the perfect weight balance. The Mercedes-AMG source engine offers great performance in terms of fuel economy. However, I couldn’t see any driving assistance system information in the press release. Actually, Aston Martin said that the Vantage is iPod compatible. iPod is technically out of production now, only iPod Touch is available!

Yes, the Vantage looks totally different from the outside to the inside. The interior does not share the clean minimalist design of the other Aston Martins, and is designed more aggressively. The exterior design is a reflection of the Vantage, and does not look like the other Aston Martins.

Aston Martin is experiencing the confirmation-bias issues faced by all the other luxury brands. They still wish to resist the changing world, and assume that people are happy with this. However, the world is changing very rapidly. Tesla just announced an electric powered coupe that can accelerate to 100 km/h in 1.9-sec! And one that costs a fraction of a Bugatti. We use smartphone more than anything else. We live in smart buildings and the luxury car world is trying to send emails using typewriters!

I really want to see a Mercedes-Benz S-Coupe-based Aston Martin.

The Aston Martin Vantage is powered by a 4.0-litre, 510PS/685Nm twin-turbo V8 engine mated to an eight-speed ZF transmission. The maximum speed 314 km/h. It goes from 0-100 km/h in 3.6 seconds.

Photo Credit // Aston Martin

Tags Aston Martin, Aston Martin Vantage

Cars

Porsche 911 Carrera T

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date November 1, 2017

Porsche recently announced the twenty-first Porsche 911 model to the market. Yes, there are 21 different Porsche 911s that you can buy. You name it, they have it in their vehicle range.

The latest addition to the range is the Porsche 911 Carrera T. It is based on the 911 T from 1968, and Porsche has decided to revive it! As you would expect, the 911 T follows the heritage of being a lightweight Porsche. Basically, you will pay more for less car. You can even remove the Porsche Communication Management (PCM) system – aka your navigation and stereo system – to save weight.

It has a 3-lt flat six twin turbo 370 engine with only a rear wheel drive option (with a mechanical rear limited slip differential). You can either have a manual or PDK gearbox. To save cost, you will have literally no comfort at all.

It is not a super-fast car actually. 0 to 100 km/h in 4.2 sec with the PDK gearbox with a top speed of 290 km/h.

Overall, you are getting a unique Porsche 911 that is not really fast. However, if you wish to experience the emotional appeal of the 911 T model, this would be your car.

Photo Credit / Porsche

Tags Porsche, Porsche 911, Porsche Carrera T

Cars

The New Range Rover / Silent Luxury

Post author By Uygar Kilic
Post date October 13, 2017

The new Range Rover was recently announced, just a couple of hours ago. Actually, it is not a brand new car, only a facelift. As the Range Rover Velar introduced a new interior with new touch screens and more features, the rest of the Range Rover family had to be revised.

Now the new Range Rover looks more like an SUV from the 1990s, and, if you push hard enough, it can perfectly fit into the 1980s, especially with Miami Vice. If you have no idea what Miami Vice is, it was the coolest TV series in the 1980s.

The new Range Rover is using reductionism, basically the design director of Land Rover just changed his mind and contrasted it with his design of five years ago. The design team removed everything that was unnecessary, because they had placed too many unnecessary things into the design.

The interior of the new Range Rover is really well built, two large touch screens look cool but I do not know how functional they are. The steering wheel has the touch sensitive buttons and they will be a headache, because, they may assume you touched the buttons but you were just holding the steering wheel.

The interior features are really improved and moved far away from being an off-road vehicle. Actually, this is supported by the lack of a rear differential lock on the website. I could not find it, but I am sure, it is still offered for the V8 engines.

The driving assistance systems are improved but still a decade behind the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and two decades behind the new Audi A8. The Audi A8 is the pinnacle of driving assistance because, it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The exterior of the Range Rover looks better with the camouflage. I never liked the new design approach for the Range Rover products. They looked like jewellery more than an SUV. Range Rovers are designed for off-road conditions not for the roads of Mayfair, London.

I cannot visualise a Range Rover with flashing blue lights in a diplomatic convoy. That job is done perfectly by the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Overall, the new Range Rover is a really good car. However, it is not great due to its decade gap with the driving assistance system. It is really good, but an average Mercedes-Benz C-Class offers much better safety and assistance than the brand-new Range Rover. That is really important. Also, there is no semi-autonomous driving feature available. Instead, Land Rover has focused on the luxury benefits rather than the utility benefits. All these years, I moaned about the Range Rover and the main reason for this was that it did not satisfy my goal of technology. It solves a problem called boosting self-esteem and luxury experience. Unfortunately, the problems solved by the Range Rover are not my problems.

Photo Credit / Land Rover

Tags Land Rover, New Range Rover, Range Rover