Categories
Cars

Car of the Day #1 Rolls Royce Ghost

I have noticed that, many people are posting pictures named as “dress of the day”, “city of the day”, “shoes of the day”, “architecture of the day” and so on. Then I thought, I have lots of car pictures which were taken by me and why I should not upload them as “car of the day”. On each Wednesday, I will be posting a car from my own library.
I am starting with Rolls Royce Ghost.
Categories
Cars

Rolls Royce: Electric Powered Palace, Sorry

I was expecting to read this news for a long time, an electric Rolls Royce. I know many people would think, there is no point to have an electric Rolls Royce or who is going to buy it! Actually those people miss one single point, Rolls Royce is owned by BMW. And BMW is keen on developing efficient vehicles and introduced technologies like Efficient Dynamics (And yesterday introduced its Intel CPU branded vehicle range i3 and i7). From this ambition, I was expecting to see a hybrid Rolls Royce. However Rolls Royce disappointed me and revealed an electric powered one!
That’s true, the mobile British palace Rolls Royce is going to have an electric version and it will be based on 102EX concept which is basically the Phantom. RR Phantom is my favourite car, this car is the definition of exquisite luxury and passion. Even though it is built by BMW, you don’t notice any BMW bit at all! It has best exterior design, best interior, comfort beyond your imagination. And a front grills which always remind me British Museum.
Let’s go back to electric RR. Phantom is a really huge car and despite its aluminium structure, it weight 2625 KG. And this makes Phantom one of the fattest cars on market and very hungry one. It is consuming or eating around 25lt/km (12mpg) in city! And we all know that, test figures cannot be achieved by normal human beings. So they are impossible. With a very basic analyses, in order to move this huge object with electric power; Phantom needs to carry batteries which should be able to power British Museum for one week! And this means extra weight. And this reduces the range.
Electric Rolls Royce is an important milestone for ultra-luxury vehicle segment and it is important to see that RR is adopting new driving technologies, and aiming to reduce consumption levels. However I still wonder how RR will manage to move this vehicle with batteries. Current battery technology is not very effective, if you don’t believe just check your laptop or mobile phone. They are still in huge size, despite the improvements in gadget technology. I am really looking forward to hear about the range and battery size! They will be impressive like its front grilles!
Last point, that’s LED powered flying lady will be requested by some customers. I am pretty sure about that! Don’t be shocked if you notice that LED lady on a RR driving along the street.

http://www.electricluxury.com/

Pictures’ and Video Copyrights
Rolls Royce

Categories
Cars

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!
Pictures’ Copyrights
Mercedes, Pizza Express, Aston Martin, Deutsche Bahn, Maserati, Paul Smith

Categories
Cars

Dear Rolls Royce;

I think this is the best of writing a post about Rolls Royce. Even you like it or not, Rolls Royce is the most respectful car brand on earth, may be one of the most respectful brand on planet. Unfortunately some customers tend to paint their Rolls Royce in pink but these are exception.
British icon Rolls Royce started a new era for their marketing strategy. It is social media! Yes, after the new Ghost model they realized that there is a new world called internet and people use it for everything. Actually I haven’t met with Rolls Royce Twitter page or blog site but I saw their application for iPhone.
This software is one of the main reason to shift from Nokia to iPhone. You have a Rolls Royce logo in your mobile phone and it is free! That’s unbelievable. However that’s all for that application. Unfortunately it does not offer more than Zara’s application! With Zara’s application, you can look at shirts, t-shirts, shoes and etc. Of course you cannot try them from your mobile phone. And Rolls Royce did the same, you can configure your Rolls Royce Ghost and that’s all!
I am sure Rolls Royce will say, what do you want more? For instance, virtual experience of driving a Rolls Royce and how comfortable it is. That’s very complicated to achieve. You need to design an application like a game and people will drive the Rolls Royce in various terrains and experience how excellent comfort is offered. In order to understand the level of comfort, you can place a glass of champagne and it won’t spill to anywhere despite adverse road conditions. Also people can experience the power reserve dial which is only available in Rolls Royce.
Rolls Royce have many opportunities for mobile applications but even for now what they have done is excellent. I am expecting to see a new application from Rolls Royce that will go beyond Zara’s. Unfortunately I have to have an iPhone to use this application!
Picture Copyrights;
Rolls Royce
Categories
Fashion

Ben Sherman: A great composition of British Automotive by a t-shirt

July is in the middle of summer with clear sky and hot temperatures which motivates us to go around air conditioned shopping centres for American readers shopping malls. Like the temperature is rising, the sales are rising which makes us to shop more. Don’t be excited, there is no %50 sales in Porsche or in Ferrari. I am talking about normal shops, where you can find normal goods without engine and wheels.
However in normal products you can still find wheels and engines, of course in a different way! Today I found a great t-shirt in Ben Sherman store (British fashion brand). I don’t know how I missed this t-shirt during the season, hopefully I missed it because it is now only £10 :) ( Link for t-shirt )
As you can see from the pictures, a great composition of British automotive industry was told. Yes, this t-shirt is telling every bit of British automotive industry. The way they combined different parts of different cars and created a new one, that’s excellent job for a fashion brand! However they missed the front grills of Rolls Royce and Bentley. But it can be acceptable.
So, if you wish own one you have to look around Ben Sherman stores. In Birmingham, I found many of them on shelf but there are no one internet.
Pictures are taken from;
Bentley, Rolls Royce and Ben Sherman Websites
Categories
Lifestyle

Best perfume for your Bentley and Rolls Royce

Perfumes and cars are not directly related with each other. As the cars tends to make smoke and horrible smell for many years, nobody ever tried to put them together. Until the French car manufacturer, Citroën offered some kind of perfume kit for interior. But I have never seen someone who likes that stuff!

Recently Italian fashion brand Dsquared introduced a new perfume series called Wood. It name is not that attractive like other perfumes and I ignored its advertisement on magazines. When I saw it in stores, I found it interesting! The bottle was covered with wood! Yes, matte wood. If you are interested on cars, you will understand what I am saying. Wood, a real wood looks magnificent inside the car and light wood interior looks much better than carbon fibre. As I saw the wood covered bottle, I tried the tester. Surprisingly, it was smelling better than I expected. Dsquared2 was never in my radar, as it is charging huge amount of prices for their designs. Contrary, the wood covered and has the impression of interior of a luxury car was a great idea.

Actually Porsche Design should have done this earlier with their metal covered perfume bottle, because I never liked it. It has the impression of forgotten car part. And nobody wants to have a bottle which looks like a air filter.

If you are planning to buy a perfume and have a cool looking luxury bottle, try Dsquared Wood. Honestly, it can be purchased just for the bottle also. However if you own a Rolls Royce or Bentley, you can ignore it, because you already have enough wood inside your car :)

Pictures are taken from;
Bentley, Rolls Royce and Dsquared Websites
Categories
Cars

Rolls Royce in Gumball 3000 : (

Gumball 3000 is not my favourite motoring event. Actually, I don’t like the idea of racing on public roads while people are driving without knowing that you are racing. Also the way they dress up the cars! There are always very nice cars in this race; Rolls Royce, Bentley, Bugatti and others. These brands have heritage and unique character but dressing up these cars for like you go to a Halloween party is not looking very nice to me! This is totally objective. Actually, I don’t like to modify cars in any way!
A few days ago Gumball 3000 started again and as usual there are many very nice cars. The most pathetic one was the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe. This car is the Rolls Royce’s very unique model with an exquisite design and I can clearly state this; Phantom Drophead Coupe is the most elegant, the best looking, the most exquisite car on planet. Every single detail of this car is excellent. However it appeared on Gumball 3000 in pink colour! Like this, you can see from the picture. This is the time, words became senseless. You can watch this on 03:08 from the Youtube video.
Picture are taken from;
Rolls Royce Website
Categories
Cars

Contemporary interpretation of Rolls Royce: Ghost

Recently Rolls Royce started to offer a new car; small, affordable, more accessible, for every day. That’s Rolls Royce Ghost which costs more than £200,000 in UK without any options or any other customization! When you consider with its big brother Rolls Royce Phantom and mega yachts, Ghost is a reasonable luxury car. Unlike Phantom, it is designed to be driven by its owner :) When you buy a Phantom, you are not supposed to drive by yourself, you have it have a driver! And this huge problem of hiring someone to drive your Rolls Royce emerged the idea of Ghost :)

Ghost is based on BMW 7 Series, as we expected. BMW is the owner of Rolls Royce Cars. I can guess, many people are saying; this is not a proper Rolls Royce, it is owned and produced by BMW. However this debate about automotive industry reminded me the Greek Philosophers which I studied during my undergraduate years. As I could remember they were relating every material to nature and this means everything is produced by nature. I hope I don’t remember wrong :) The debates about car companies are similar to this, Rolls Royce owned by BMW and other owned by someone else! So What? I am not happy with this but if they have relationship like BMW and Rolls Royce, they don’t have any problem.
Ghost is based on BMW 7 Series, they are sharing same V12 engine, same transmission and many other parts which we don’t see from outside. However, Ghost is not like a 7 Series! Its design denies any relationship with 7 Series and proofs that it is a totally different car. Even though I didn’t have any chance to see this car in real life, even the pictures can be considered as a solid proof. Every single detail, from outside to inside reflects the Rolls Royce heritage. The suicide doors, power reserve dial on dash board, umbrella hidden inside the door, climate control dials.
They are showing that, this car is a proper Rolls Royce. Unfortunately, BMW’s stupid iDrive can be seen inside but it does not seem like the original iDrive. I hope that, it won’t be useless like in BMW’s. One of the interesting features of Ghost is its suspensions; Ghost is riding on air springs which help to increase comfort and isolate passengers from the road. These suspensions also have same something very interesting! Suspension system can understand the where the rear passenger is sitting and adjust the suspension to maximize the comfort for that side. Anything else?
Ghost is a great car! I love Phantom but I would not wish to drive one, it is a car to be driven by someone. This can be added to list of dream cars. Despite its huge price tag, what Ghost is offering is worth all that money. I can say one more thing; Ghost is a contemporary interpretation of Rolls Royce :)
Pictures are from;
Rolls Royce Website
Categories
Cars

Why British cars are so different?

Nowadays, when we talk about British cars, our brain reminds us something! There are no pure British cars are left, I mean the main brands. A quick flash back; Land Rover and Jaguar (Tata), Aston Martin (ProDrive and Kuwait Investment), Bentley (VW), Rolls Royce and Mini (BMW). So; when we see a British car, we will see something which is not British. However; this became normal in automotive industry, many brands are owned by some other brands. I don’t stick on that too much, as long as the brand’s heritage and spirit are alive, different companies can be their owners.
However; I cannot say British cars have very good reputation in reliability and offer competitive high technology. If we compare with German cars, there is a huge gap between them. Actually, there is a huge gap between German cars and whole world! The interesting thing with British brands is their spirit did not die, despite the adverse things happened to them. We still turn our heads and look at the new Jaguar XJ or we want to own a Range Rover or win lottery and experience exquisite time with a Rolls Royce Ghost. All these dreams are supplying blood to British brands. But how did this happen? Why don’t we feel the same excitement to a Mercedes S350CDi 4MATiC or to a Audi A6 2.8 Quattro or to a Toyota Avensis?
All those brands have something in common. The visibility factor; yes their quantity is too much to be exclusive. And this is the main obstacle, however Maybach is very rare but people don’t rush to it. This shows the importance of brand heritage. Italian cars have similar characteristics with British cars and they are very exclusive but they don’t bring the combination of different materials to create luxury interior, we don’t feel like we are inside a British palace. Porsche is a car to be loved but its product range is too wide for a dream. Nobody wants to dreams a cheaper car. And complicated engine range, you need to learn which engine is better than others.
I am not saying those are cars bad or inadequate to be exclusive. Those cars are more reliable, offers wide range of choice. You could live your dreams with sacrificing your future wealth. Drives very well, performance is great. Actually, most of the British cars are good for watching. Ferrari offers great technology, great sound. I would prefer Ferrari over an Aston Martin. Mercedes offers everything better than Jaguar. Porsche is the perfection. But we all look at an Aston Martin DBS, when we hear it is approaching to us. That’s something which cannot be described with words! Is it power? No, most of the Mercedes AMG models offer more power. Is it brand heritage, who can remember everything about that brand so quickly. Or is it the design? Ferrari has fantastic look also. British cars are showing our dreams in real life. If we want to buy one, other alternative might be offering a better car. However if we have chance, I am pretty sure that we would like to drive an Aston Martin or Bentley Azure for some time.
Pictures are from (In order);
Bentley Azure T (Website)
Aston Martin DBS (Website)
Jaguar XJ (Website)
Rolls Royce Ghost (Website)