Vampire Volvo, Bond BMW and Smith Shelby

#3: Volvo XC60 in ‘Twilight Saga: New Moon’

I’m outside of the target demographic for the much-hyped movie so perhaps it’s just me, but shouldn’t a young vampire be driving around in a sinister blacked out Studebaker or something? Not so - “Volvo is central to Edward’s character in the Twilight saga,” proclaimed the press release. Volvo’s crossover SUV is a fine car for sure, but all those active safety systems seem a bit unnecessary if you’re already dead?

#2: BMW Z3 in ‘Goldeneye’

James Bond films perfected the art of product placement, arguably part of their charm, but the BMW Z3’s first public airing was too blatant to leave out. The car appears on-screen as a backdrop to conversation just long enough for everyone to want one. There are neither chases nor gadgets; Joe Don Baker’s character then reverses the car off the screen and into a showroom near you.

#1: Ford Mustang GT500 in ‘I Am Legend’

New York, post-apocalypse: Will Smith is all alone and spends his days knocking golf balls into the Hudson. Under the circumstances, any performance car you fancy makes perfect sense, considering that every road in the city is deserted, bar the odd rotting corpse. What’s daft however is that despite the weeds and decay, Will’s gleaming red Shelby ‘Stang remains of concours standard throughout. Come the end of the world there may be no electricity, no agriculture, and no more civilisation… but at least cars will valet themselves.  

co\\'ol

What do the Mitsubishi i MiEV, C1 ev’ie and smart ed have in common? Other than being electric cars, I mean. Yup, it seems you can’t launch an electric car without a scattering of lower-case lettering and pointless apostrophes. Pseudo typographical errors are the new CO’ol.

I recently took part in the Tacheback campaign which helps to raise money and awareness for the Everyman male cancer charity by encouraging men (and perhaps women?) to grow a sponsored moustache for a month.

Feeling somewhat guilty about asking for money to merely grow a ‘tache’ while others are running half marathons and undertaking grueling treks up mountains, I decided that at the very least, I would publish regular photographs on the Tacheback site which would track my stubbly and then bristly progress, while laying myself open to a fair degree of ridicule.

Where am I going with this?

Well, as I played with the razor and reshaped my facial hair arrangement over the course of the month, I found that the results could be as dramatic, in terms of altering my appearance, as undergoing plastic surgery.

So when it comes to ‘facelifting’ cars at the mid-point in their life-cycles, could the manufacturers exercise a little more restraint, freshening the appearance of a model by mildly updating facial graphics rather than tugging and tucking skin?

Well, I think the Fiat Punto Evo may be one example of this. To me, this car, more than any other - appears moustachioed.

But if it’s a full-on goatee you’re after, SEAT’s Ibiza Cupra Bocanegra takes the crown. I put the hot hatch through its paces at the UK launch this week. Its very name translates as black mouth and that ‘bearded’ scowl distinguishes the Bocanegra from the rest of the Ibizas as the swarthy villain of the range.

If you can think of any other cars that look like they’re sporting whiskers, drop me a line and we’ll see if we can put together a top 10.

Lexus has confirmed plans to build the LFA supercar

Maybe it’s me, but don’t this year’s key exhibits at the Tokyo Motor Show just look so… clinical? Everything is either white, grey or silver, bendy, and fabricated using surplus pop art from Andy Warhol’s back garden. The show floor must feel about as warm as the space station in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’

It’s deliberate of course, the message is: technology and energy efficiency. Nissan Leaf (EV), Honda EV-N (EV), Nissan Land Glider (EV), Subaru Hybrid Tourer (hybrid), Mitsubishi iMiEV Cargo (EV.) You get the picture.

But with the Toyota FT-86, Honda CR-Z and Lexus LFA, Tokyo 2009 might also demonstrate that Japan is warming to desirable sports cars again. Reason enough to celebrate.  

The Trabant, old and new

If you’ve been in an original Mini or Beetle, you’ll know they share nothing with their modern namesakes.

Can’t say I’ve ever ridden in a Trabant, although they were everywhere when we visited the former DDR on a family holiday in the early ‘90s. News that a company is keen to revive this car initially left me scratching my head – after all, the minute the wall came down, ‘Easterners’ couldn’t wait to get their hands on ‘Western’ cars. Pity those poor souls who had just reached the top of the Trabant’s ten-year waiting list.

Should a Trabant rise from the grave, its appeal must surely be proximate. After all, despite the times millions of people will have some happy memories: their summer holiday in a Trabi; driving the pregnant wife to the hospital in the Trabi; weekends spent polishing the, erm, cardboard bodywork of the Trabi. And so on.

After all, who doesn’t look back at old pics and remember the life of a car fondly? Even if the car itself is perhaps best forgotten.  

Heikkilookalikei Legolainen

I watched the final, almost-everlasting episode of Lord of the Rings on telly the other night.

It’s great. I particularly like the bits about the Finnish F1 driver. It’s comforting to know that if McLaren-Mercedes gives him the boot, he can always sail off to the Grey Havens.

Detailed third-scale model of Qazana SUV and a full-size clay being milled

Nissan Design Europe opened its doors to the public for the first time last week since its inauguration some 6 years ago. The occasion was the Nissan East West exhibition which formed part of the 2009 London Design Festival.

From September 23rd to the 25th, Nissan organised a series of tours of its West London facility enabling visitors to discover more about the automotive design process.

Digital Group Leader David Harrison showed us around an exhibit that included a detailed third scale model of the Qazana SUV which, he said, is due to hit the market in 2010 - although the name is yet to be confirmed.

The studio setting provided a viewing platform overlooking the clay-modelling facility which included a full-size  plate as well as third-scale and quarter-scale set-ups. Watching the robotised arms carving away at the clay was quite hypnotic and the whole experience gave a fascinating insight into the key stages of vehicle design.

The Paddington studio was set up in order to deliver designs more suited to European tastes and the results have really borne out the exercise. The Qashqai for example (designed completely in London), has smashed all expectations, selling well over 300,000 units per year.

Scale models were supported with extensive design renderings and non-automotive products which provide influences to the designers - things like lightweight flasks, running shoes and backpacks.

As well as the tour, a series of arts and design installations were exhibited by various artists under the theme of ‘East meets West: the cultural crossroads of creativity’.

I say well done to NIssan for relaxing its usually watertight security to allow us a rare glimpse behind the scenes of designing and creating a car.

Check out our gallery for more pictures from our visit to Nissan Design Europe.

I live quite close to the farm in Surrey that featured recently in news stories about the outbreak of E-coli.

But during a recent trip to another part of Surrey I encountered an outbreak of another sinister visitation, namely E-bygum.  In the coach park of a famed beauty spot I noticed a Yorkshire-registered coach, the occupants of which were marveling at things we take for granted: sunshine, trees, and the whiff of rich pasture land – land that once was farmed but which now is merely owned by the rich.

This set me thinking. What kind of carbon footprint would be left by this 400-mile round-trip? And what would be the cumulative footprint of hundreds of such excursions every weekend, not only by coach, but by car as well?

We are urged to live green, and reduce our individual carbon footprints, yet we allow people to roam freely – far from home and in total disregard of the environmental costs of mere recreational travel.

Although I am a keen environmentalist (in fact, I have just sold a V12 car and replaced it with a V8) don’t get me wrong: I’m all for a weekend drive, but do we have to travel so far? I have written to George Brown and suggested that Britain could lead the way in reducing our CO2 footprint by insisting that tourists be confined to the county in which they have chosen to live and work. I appreciate that some counties have little to offer tourists however well they might know the area, so I have suggested that residents of certain counties be allowed to visit contiguous counties: for example, that Lancastrians be allowed to visit Yorkshire; or that folks from Bedfordshire might be allowed to nip into Cambridgeshire or Northants, but not Hertfordshire in case they could not be persuaded to return home.

In one fell swoop we could cut our CO2 output by millions of tonnes each year, our roads would run more freely, and in these credit-crunched times people would spend less on fuel and have more money for bingo.  Enterprising caterers could offer a form of virtual tourism; pubs in Leicestershire could serve Cornish pasties; tea shoppes in Yorkshire could serve Devon cream teas; and Surrey restaurants could serve potee chaud du Lancastre.  Indeed, with a little imagination an entirely toponymic menu could be contrived.

But to be fair, people must first be given a chance to choose the county where they must work, rest and play, so I have suggested to George the idea of a ‘transfer window’. A period of six months during which people could up sticks and move to the county of their choice. Unfortunately Surrey and Sussex are full, but I’m told that Northumbria has one or two nice spots.