Auto Design

A new baby Porsche is born and i just could not be more happy and inspired about it !

Performance :  behind the seats are two flat-six engines with direct injection, thermal management and start/stop functionality. The base Boxster uses a 2.7-liter flat six, good for 265 horsepower (10 hp more than its predecessor) while the Boxster S is powered by a 3.4-liter six that produces 315 hp (an increase of 5 hp versus the 2012 model).

Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini. ©

We have driven, in a real environment, one of the some 1100 BMW ActiveE, that the German premium car maker will deliver as of December. This is the all-electric, plug-in, two-door, four-sweater, real-wheel drive sport car built from the first generation BMW 1 series coupé platform.  Handling, acceleration, speed and comfort are on a pair, or better, than the BMW120i Coupé and our feeling was that, indeed, we could go on for all the 140 km range promised by the lithium-ion batteries charged at 92% at start point. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

BMW Board of Directors,  managers and employees have presented their all-new 3 series limousine to the press gathered in Munich for an event that has been broadcasted on line for all car enthusiasts, in sometwhat retoric yet appropriate cerimony celebrating the BMW team at large and the Munich factory that produce the company most iconic and profitable range.

Read the rest of this entry »

From Giancarlo Perini ©

Today Volkswagen has eventually released the first official pictures of its third generation Beetle. The official images show that the grand child has grown up and aims at developing a personality of its own, on line with the tune of the mature-internet generation. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

The 2011 Auto Shanghai motor show, opening in a week time, will not be business as usual. Indeed it will mark a new era of the entire world car industry, the one steered by the Chinese market and industry. China is the biggest car market, and the one that is growing faster worldwide. The leading premium brands are betting on for most of their growth in the decade. Read the rest of this entry »

Exclusive.

Just 21 days ahead of the Auto Shanghai 2011 show, BMW has officially released the news concerning the very unique and amazingly fast M3 Pick-up developed by a task force in a very short period of time.

Considering the speed of the entire development, today I prefer to let the press-office tell you the entire story by reproducing here the full press release, issued just few hours ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini. ©

You can’t be mistaken: the show car that Smart is presenting in Geneva with the name of “forspeed” proves that the company’s designers have taken a ride on the roller-coaster and had a lot of fun in creating an EV Roadster so full of curvatures, shapes and colour that in its full-size dimension attract teen-agers with a driving license and, in a smaller scale, would be the dream of their younger brothers and sister under ten. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

According to well placed sources, on February 21^st, when Dr.-Ing. Norbert Reithofer , CEO of the BMW Group will eventually and officially announce the name of the sub-brand that the German group is setting up for the production and sale of the all-new range of automobiles (designed to specifically meet the expectations of mega cities drivers), the audience will be impressed for the extreme simplicity of the formula and logo.

The sub-brand is simply named “BMW i” (but it could well be iBMW or i-BMW) and reflects the same approach to specialty vehicles the company took when it launched the “BMW M” division dedicated to race-inspired high performance range, back in 1972.

In the past months (actually years) the industry has been wondering and questioning which way BMW would go when marketing their innovative new vehicles and enthusiasts expected that some old brands, such as Isetta, would be resurrected. More recently, after BMW announced that the first vehicles to bow from the “Project-i” will be a full-electric development many sources were ready to bet the sub-brand would start with an “e” for electric(ity).

Late in 2007 BMW put together the Project ‘i’ group in order to develop a “completely new car and mobility concepts for megacities”, according to chairman Norbert Reithofer. The ‘i’ stands for innovation and in the team was given a very open briefing alongside the freedom to act beyond the structure of the BMW organisation to explore different technologies and approaches, including the exploration of battery power.

What the car will look like will become clear in September, when “BMW i” unveils its first “Concept” actually based on the new four-metre long, four-seater, rear-engined, and rear-wheel-drive premium city-car, that is expected to go on sale towards the end of 2013. As one would expect from such an innovative vehicle the design will feature a “surprise”. Whether this will have to do with the door-opening, as I expect, or something else the sources did not want to say.

With an overall length close to 4 metres and because of the package advantages offered by E-propulsion system, the first BMW i will offer the roominess and status of a 3 series within a length some 25 cm shorter than a first generation 1.

The new plug-in electric BMW will be a roomy and comfortable premium car that will be offering the driving pleasure, quality and comfort standards of a 4 seater BMW, which price will reflect the technology value of its content. I would expect the price to be slightly higher than a well equipped 3 series and the weight to be closer to that of the second generation1 series, with the weight of the sophisticated battery pack and its ancillaries compensated by the extensive use of aluminium and carbon fibre for the chassis and bodywork.

By Giancarlo Perini ©

In the clear light of Cape Town’s wharf, the all-new BMW 650i Cabriolet proudly shows its beauty and style. The latest generation of open-air luxury on wheels is longer, lower and wider but with its soft and rounded shapes it looks more compact, light and agile. Read the rest of this entry »

by Giancarlo Perini (c)

According to unofficial sources, Italdesign is set to unveil two show cars at the forthcoming Geneva Motor Show early next March. They will be the first ones to be designed by Maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro after the company, he established in 1968, has been acquired by the Volkswagen Group, last May.

A glimpse at one of the two “product concepts” is said to be previewed, very discreetly, by the company with the Christmas memento sent to a limited number of friends, clients and journalists. This is indeed the reproduction of a sketch penned by the Maestro that shows the exterior design of an attractive two-doors, four-seater coupé that could well be regarded as the 2011 Scirocco by Giugiaro. The difference here is that the “new coupe” bear the emblem of Seat.

The Spanish brand is currently the weakest member of the VW family and as such the one that needs the greatest and most urgent attention by the Group. It only makes sense that Giugiaro talent and attention goes to Seat.

Some years ago, VW’s supremo Ferdinand Piëch said that Seat’s mission was to challenge and beat Alfa Romeo on its own ground. The mission is far to be accomplished despite its success in the World Touring Car Championship .Now, while Fiat is keeping Volkswagen “on hold” for the acquisition of Alfa Romeo, the German group wants to look again at the potential of the Seat brand and see what can be done, should the Alfa Romeo deal take too long a time. As such it is also a discreet message to Sergio Marchionne.

The second show-car from Giorgetto Giugiaro to be seen in Geneva is rumoured to be a new hatchback that could well be  the “2011 vision of a Golf” by Giugiaro.