Geneva Car Show 2011 - Hybrid, Electricity, and ..... ?

So, what's new at the Geneva Car Show 2011? Well, if you need the newspapers, then they claim that 170 new cars are shown by 700 exhibitors. Hmmh. What does "new" mean? I have seen lots of hybrid and semi-electrical derivatives of known cars. I have seen a number of interesting concept cars and a number of quite ugly ones too. I have seen new versions of sportscars.
So, what do I really remember after 8 hours of constant walking around and taking pictures? Yes, the BMW Vision concept car is quite impressive. The Alfa Romeo 4C concept car hopefully never makes it close to production, it's clearly not my cup of tea. I certainly will remember forever the highly attractive Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato (from 1962) at the Aston booth. It probably was the most beautiful car of the show. I was quite impressed by the Mazda 4 door saloon concept car, nice design and good presentation, really! And then the Bertone Jaguar 4 door saloon car. First I really liked the car, when I spotted it in a newspaper. But now, having seen it in the real world, I am not so sure anymore. Would the design really last well over time? I doubt it. It's too short term oriended in my eyes.
Wiesmann showed a design concept that makes you like the current designs even more. I was positively suprised when looking at the Carozzeria Touring design for a potential new Gumpert. The existing car is quite functional and beauty probably wasn't high on the criteria list, but the Touring version could make it one of the better super cars in my eyes.
Giugiaro showed a Volkswagen that makes the existing fleet of Volkswagen look quite old and outdated. Yes, that's a direction I could support! The Saab concept car makes you hungry for more, while the Lamborghini Aventador sort seems to be more of the same, no real quantum leap that I would have hoped Lamborghini could do (think Miura versus Countach). De Tomaso surprised with a comeback presenting the de Tomaso Deauville. There's a good and a bad message here: The Deauville is not pretty at all and really nothing you would dream of, the people from de Tomaso announced that they will present a new Pantera later this year, so we still can hope for better things to come. Some nice displays with old cars were shown as well, I mentioned the Aston, but there was also a Jaguary E Type from 1961, a Mercedes Simplex and a Lehner-Porsche. Too bad Renault only tried it halfway, cutting a 1961 Renault R4L in pieces ....
What would I want to buy? I honestly don't know!
More and other pictures can be found here!

Do all cars look alike? How car makers are giving up on individual characteristics and design attributes

What you see here are station wagons of two design brands that give quite a bit for their distinctive characteristics and design attributes. But you really have to look for the details to see the differences! The "man from the street" probably couldn't tell which car is coming from what brand, if you removed the batches. Don't understand me wrongly, both cars are pretty and certainly well shaped and designed, but they lack differentiation. And it's not just these two cars, it's the whole lot we can buy today. Aerodynamics, safety and apparently today's tate influence what the designers can do. Too sad!
By the way, if you haven't been able to identify the two cars: BMW 5 Series Touring 2010 and Citroen C5 Tourer 2010.

Advertising the BMW 507

As you probably have found out, I really love old car ads. Here's one showcasing the BMW 507. It was BMW's attempt to compete with the mighty Mercedes 300 SL and it actually had a magnificent 8 cylinder engine and the gorgeous design of Goertz. But it didn't sell well in the 50ies and disappeared after only few cars produced. I know of people having been able to buy one for less than 40k Euro and selling it for ten time as much a number of years later.

Parking with classic cars is really much easier!

It's now official! Auto Motor and Sport compared a range of cars including the Volkswagen Touran, Mercedes E-Series Convertible, Toyota Prius, BMW 5-Series Station Wagon and a number of others in how easy it is to park them. They measured how much you can see from the driver position, how big the car is, how easy it gets into a 5.5 m parking spot and a number of other criterias and they also looked at the electronic gizmo to help with parking. Well, the winner is, the BMW 3-series E30 limousine from the 80ies. It actually has beaten the modern cars by a factor, thanks to the smaller body, the great 360 degree view and the fact that you can actually see the end of the car when you sit in it. Despite the fact that none of the modern accessories was on board, i.e. park distance control, parking assistance, cameras, etc., the people at AMS found it much easier to park this car compared to the modern rivals. I am really happy that they brought in this 80ies benchmark when comparing the modern cars, as this now so transparently shows how cars got worse along these criteria over time. Of course there are reasons, why modern cars are as they are, one being safety. But even with today's standards cars could have larger windows and better visibility today, if the designers didn't think differently.

Picture of the Week - Classic meets Modern

Seen recently at an oldtimer event (with cars and motocycles), this looks like a still live where tradition meets modern times. Funny enough barely anybody was interested in the Mercedes SLR while people really enjoyed the old motocycles (and cars).

Are Audis a renaissance of the body in different sizes like Devins or Buchanans?

Yes, this is the brand new Audi A7. You wouldn't have noticed? It looks like all the other Audis, specifically the A5 Sportsback or the A4? No, it's really a different car, even if you don't notice. For example, it's longer than the other mentioned. But having been mistaken myself, I honestly must say, they really look alike a lot.
It's almost as if the successful practice of Bill Devin producing many different (fiberglass) bodies with the same shape fitting different chassis and sizes is coming back. You want an Audi? Do you want 4.2, 4.5, 4.7 or 4.9 meter length? Well, then take this one or that one, they all look the same basically. It's like buying jeans, you have picked the brand, now it's about size. I think this is the wrong strategy with cars, especially with such expensive cars. And it's a bit boring and lacks imagination and innovation as well. BMW does a bit the same, but at least the different cars have more unique design features, same with Mercedes. I prefer cars that look unique and special, that's probably the reason why I like older cars so much ....

What is better? BMW M3, Ford Sierra Cosworth or Mercedes 190 2.3 16?

Yes, the boys are back. TopGear is on air again. Last Sunday they were given the challenge to buy a family track day car on a budget of GBP 5'000.-. Well the boys arrived with a E36 M3, a Mercedes 190E 2.3 16 valve (homologation car) and a Ford Sierra Cosworth. I wonder whether you could find the Merc at apparently 3'000 GBP here as it already follows the famous E30 M3 as a collector's item. And even the E36 M3 fetches better prices than what Hamster was able to buy it for (though apparently an accident car). Anyway the challenge was fun and the winner accidental (Merc). I wonder which of the three cars you would prefer. For me it's the Mercedes 16 valve Cosworth car for it's pure racing pedigree (highly successful in touring car championship). But if they had added an E30 BMW M3 then the choice would have been more clear.

BMW's serious attempt to build a better electrical car

It's called the MCV (megacity vehicle) and it's BMW's attempt to build a better electrical car. Massive use of carbon fiber and aluminum make the car not heavier than a gasoline engine driven car. Batteries in the floor ensure good usage of space. And the car is supposed to be affordable on top. That's really good news. 250 km range is okay for a four seater in the city. So, go on, BMW build this car and show us what electrical cars can do if they are engineered well!

An argument for hard top convertible cars?

I have been arguing a lot against the current trend to build convertibles with hard tops for quite a number of reasons:
1) Heavy
2) Complex (just think about all the hydraulics)
3) Bad weight distribution (where does the top sit when it's folded down?)
4) Design/look - fat end cars
However when I looked at this picture I had to admit that there are some proper advantages too having a hard fold-able top on your car. And I must also say that the new BMW Z4 actually looks quite sharp. But at the end of the day, a convertible should be driven with the top down and in most of the cases the fabric top should only be your last resort, so why carrying around all that metal and complexity?

ADAC 24 Hours of Nurburgring 2010 - BMW and Ferrari win, Porsche and Audi suffer

This year's 24 hours of Nurburgring showed as always a very diverse starting grid. A highlight was the Porsche 911 Hybrid racer that almost won the race, but retired after 20 hours or so. As some of the Audi R8 LMS also suffered from various problems the victory was with BMW and its M3 GT2 car no 25. Second came in the Ferrari 430 GTC as a surprise, it was the first start of the 430 at the 24 hours of Nurburgring. A couple of Audi R8, Porsche GT3 and BMW (M3, Z4 GT3) completed the first eleven. Twelfth was the Nissan Z33 with nine laps behind the winner. And thirteenth was a Porsche GT3 RS, a street legal car, impressive! 16th was the Volkswagen Scirocco GT 24-CNG (-80% CO2), 18th the Lexus LF-A, 19th the Opel Astra OPC, 27th the first Aston Martin Vantage V8, 30st a Honda S2000. Interesting also the car coming in as 34st, it was a four door Aston Martin Rapide, driven by the Aston CEO Ulrich Bez and a couple of other chaps. The Lotus Exige burnt down in the morning, but the Ginetta G50 GT4 arrived after 112 laps, noting that the winner finished 154 laps. Average lap times of the front running cars were between 8:30 and 9:00 for the 25.378 km long track (Nordschleife and Grand Prix course coupled). As always there were hundred thousands of fans around the track making this event to a week long party. It's a unique race and probably one of the largest racing events overall on a worldwide scale, no wonder that so many prominent drivers join the race every year.

BMW C1-E - electrical bike that actually could make sense

It hasn't generated that much noise in the press landscape, but what BMW presented last November (2009) was actually quite convincing! They took their BMW C1 bike with roof and seat belts and replaced the dull gasoline engine with an electric motor and batteries. The result has a number of convincing attributes:
It's zero emission (if you don't include the production of the energy).
It can be parked like a motocycle - so you don't need to look for a parking space!
It can be driven without a helmet, if you want (in most countries), so less of a hardcore vehicle compared to real motocycles.
I know a number of people who loved the C1. Obviously though it didn't bring the sales figures expected and BMW stopped production after only 3 years. With the BMW C1-E we could have seen a resurrection, but obviously BMW decided to not produce this one. Big mistake in my eyes, as for marketing purposes this would be at least as convincing as the Mini-E.

Porsche 924 Carrera GT versus BMW M3 (E30) - which one to choose?

In first sight the Porsche 924 Carrera GT and the BMW M3 (E30) seem to be difficult to compare. But when you look closer there are actually many similarities.
Both cars have been designed and built with homologation rules (FIA) in mind, so both cars are Evolution Specials. Both cars are based on a mass production everyday car, the Porsche is based on the not too popular but still well sold 924 (with Audi engine), the BMW on the very popular 3 series.
Performance of the two cars is pretty similar, despite the 7-10 years of difference in age. They accelerate in roughly 7 seconds from 0-100 km/h and reach a top speed around 240 km/h. Both cars are equipped with 4 cylinder engines. And in both cases the car manufacturers decided for more or less traditional tuning options to make the cars faster and better looking, i.e. body kits, aerodynamics improvements, engine tuning, weight saving, etc.. In both cases the result is absolutely convincing! And this is appreciated by people owning and buying these cars. Both cars hold their value much much better than their mass production sister. A well maintained M3 (E30) from 1987 to 1990 will fetch prices around Euro 15'000 to 25'000, the Porsche 924 Carrera GT typically trades between Euro 25'000 to 35'000 for examples in good condition. And, yes, both are fairly practical cars, can seat 4 people and take some luggage too. And both cars are astonishingly economical in terms of fuel consumption, at least if you believe the ECE/DIN average consumption levels.

But let's get to the differences between these cars! The Porsche 924 Carrera GT is 30 years now almost, so basically can be called an oldtimer, while the M3 still needs to wait for another 8-10 years for this "honor". While the Porsche has a turbo engine with more then 100 hp/liter, the BMW uses a high revving 4 cylinder racing oriented 4 cylinder without turbo or compressor.
The Porsche has been built 406 times and probably 90% of these cars are still around. The M3 in comparison has been produced about 17'000 times, so in terms of rarity there's quite a difference! Interestingly this doesn't impact the value too much!

If you want to buy one, then color choice will not be of great concern as the Porsche only was delivered in three colors (red, silver, black) and the M3 in only few mores (e.g. white). Condition and history are critical, as maintenance bills can become quite significant for both cars!

I have been writing about these two cars before, so if you want to read more about them, have a look here and here.

Everyday Classics - example Porsche 911 SC G-Model

Classic cars are often said to be "heavy maintenance" compared to "low maintenance" of modern cars. That's why most people use classic cars only for the sunny and dry days and keep them in a warm garage for the rest of the time. However there are a number of classic cars that often also get used like everyday cars. A typical example is the Porsche 911, pictured here the G model (built between 1973 and 1989). Many of these cars still get driven every day and maintenance bills are not higher than if you drive a modern equivalent. Other examples are the SL series from Mercedes-Benz, be it the R113 or even more the R107 (280 SL, 300 SL, 350 SL, 380 SL, 420 SL, 500 SL, 560 SL). Also some of the Jaguars get used every day and many sport limousines from BMW, Mercedes, Alfa-Romeo or other car manufacturers still help their owners to get through the daily traffic. That's good, as so we keep remembering them and the streets don't look so dull showing only silver and black aerodynamic wonders passing by.

The three best German Super Cars taking a 1987 perspective: Porsche 959, Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, BMW M1

In 1987 the German car magazine Sport Auto featured an article on the best German Sportscars ever. The three cars they put into the center were the mighty Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, the BMW M1 and the Porsche 959. It must be said that Germany at that time was in an 959 euphoria. Clearly the 959 was an excellent car for its time! Even today its performance is impressive: 0-100 km/h in 3.9 sec, 450 hp, 315 km/h top speed, 3.2 kg/hp. And it was hugely expensive at DM 420'000, well that's at least what people thought. As we know today that kind of price tag is what you can charge for a super or hyper sportscar. Ferrari's answer to the 959, the Ferrari F40, at least came in exactly at the same price point. But if you compare the 959 with the M1, built 7 or 8 years earlier, it must be said that the M1 was at DM 113'000.- inexpensive in comparison. And it was fast too with 0-100 km/h in 5.6 sec and a top speed of 262 km/h. With a lower weight of 1'300 kg it had an acceptable power to weight ratio too with 4.7 kg/hp. And 33 years before the Porsche 959 a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL could be bought at DM 29'000.-. What may sound inexpensive was pretty much unaffordable at that time when a Volkswagen Beetle was probably around DM 1'500.-. But this car reached a mind boggling 250 km/h top speed and accelerated in 9 sec from 0 to 100 km/h while the Beetle could barely reach 100 km/h and you could cook your breakfast eggs in the time it took from 0-100 km/h. Now, one of the questions to ask is of course whether these were the three best German sportscars until 1987. I guess, it's a question of definition. Would you include cars like the Isdera, would the Mercedes C111 count, are street legal race cars like the Porsche 904 GTS or the Porsche Carrera 6 to be included? And what about pre war cars such as the Mercedes SSK? The three shown cars in the article are at least an attractive selection and could all go on any serious car collector's shopping list.

BMW 5 Series - getting heavier and heavier

BMW has recently presented its new 5 Series sedan. The BMW 5 Series is very important for BMW as this is the car that is widely used as company car, not just in Germany but often also in the UK, Switzerland and other countries. Failing to meet the requirements and taste of potential buyers would mean to put the company on risk basically. Well, if you look at the new car, BMW has done a good job and didn't take any risks really. Of course the car got bigger as it has over the last series too, but it also got quite a bit heavier, basically 100 kg more than its predecessor. Having owned a number of these cars myself (E60, E39 and E34) I am not too pleased with this weight gain. Already the E60 was quite heavy, especially with the Diesel 6 cylinder engine and 4x4 set-up, it actually felt a bit like a truck to drive. Previous series were lighter and also smaller, my E39 had a petrol 6 cylinder 3.5 engine and the E34 came even with the small 8 cylinder engine. All the cars I owned were showing quite well what was possible in their period and the new one will continue this story. What once more is impressive with the new car is how fuel efficient even such a heavy car can be, at least when you apply the official standards (i.e. ECE standards). And as always the 5 Series opens the world of luxury to (rich) drivers with the accessories and goodies coming from the 7 Series, but all at a price. The fact that a well equipped BMW 5 Series scratches 70 to 100'000 € is probably not really fitting to the recession times we just try to overcome.

Best 10 car investment opportunities for 2010

In their current issue Octane proposed "The Smart Buys of 2010". There list includes the following ten cars that they expect to rise in value: Ferrari 550, Porsche 911 Turbo, Aston Martin DB7, Jaguar Mk1 3.4, Jaguar E-Type S1/S2 FHC, Lotus Elan, Aston Martin V8 Zagato, Aston Martin V8 Virage, Ferrari 308 GT/4 and Mercedes-Benz SL (R107). While I do agree with some of these cars as good candidates to gain in value, I think the list is very "UK focused" and misses a couple of exciting investment opportunities. So here's my list as an alternative:

(1) BMW M3 (E30) - great car for everyday and exciting track cars for the special occasions, not too many were built and there's lots of racing pedigree
(2) Porsche 924 Carrera GT - I wrote about this car before, it's clearly undervalued, was produced in very little numbers and has more racing pedigree than any Ferrari since the GTO
(3) Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS - I consider these cars as still undervalued especially in comparison with some of the 12 cylinders. These cars are great to drive and less expensive to own than the bigger cars and the design is just magnificent
(4) Mercedes SL (R07) - great classics, were built over 17 years, the last ones are not only reliable but also inexpensive to own. They are not rare in comparison, but they even have catalyst converters and therefore can be driven even in protective cities
(5) Alfa-Romeo GTV 6 - again an instant classic with an unbelievable soundtrack. Not that expensive to buy, but some money is needed for maintenance. Many have disappeared appreciating the value of the remaining cars.
(6) Lotus Esprit S2, S2.2, S3 - great and fairly revolutionary shape in the 70ies, thanks to Giugiaro. S2.2 very rare, but even S2 and S3 reached small numbers in comparison to other classics. Inexpensive to own if it's a well sorted one.
(7) BMW M1 - as close to a race car as you can get. It was developed to win in racing, the road going sportscar was sort of a by-product, less than 500 cars produced make it very rare. Prices are climbing quickly though. A few years ago I was offered a M1 for less than € 50'000, now they are twice to three times this price level
(8) TVR 3000M/Taimar/3000 S - easy to own and maintain british sportscar, low number produced, especially in LHD. You can't go wrong if you buy a well sorted one
(9) Lotus Elite - less popular than the ever loved Lotus Elan, but actually much more nimble, exclusive and much closer to racing than its successor. The Elite competed in Le Mans successfully and the road car was fairly close to what the guys were using there. Prices are not too much higher than for good Elans but you get a Climax engine and lots of engineering ideas from Colin Chapman. Not a car for everybody though. But the shape is just exquisite, especially for a car of its size
(10) Aston Martin DB7 - okay, I had to take one of these onto the list. Not that it's really a great car in terms of technology and engineering, but the design is so much better than most alternatives you can buy for the same money that it's worth being considered.

So, that's the list, and of course there are many that could be added. And remember: if bought only for making money, probably none of them will bring enough interests due to all the cost that come with owning an exclusive car. But if you include your passion and pleasure in the equation, then you can forget oil, gold, platinum or any other investment ....

Does modern car electronics limit the ability to become a classic car?

There's a heated debate between car enthusiasts whether modern car electronics limits the lifespan of cars after 1980. Bosch announced the CAN bus in 1983 and produced it from 1987 onwards. Since then many different vehicle bus systems have been standardized and implanted into cars. With the bus the previously independent components (i.e. ABS, engine electronics, traction control, etc.) are connected and need to cooperate to make the car work properly. Therefore cars became much more complex as a system. There was of course electronics in cars before the introduction of bus systems, i.e. in the electronic fuel injection (e.g. Bosch L-Jetronic and others), starting in the late sixties and popular in the 70ies and 80ies. But these components were still fairly restricted and in many case can be replaced with simpler systems should there be a lack of spare parts. The problem with "modern" electronics is threefold:

a) Electronic components age and stop to work when connections corrode or individual parts defect.

b) Many manufacturers have disappeared, and even if the manufacturer still exists then there are no spare parts available because the lifetime of many of these components was so short

c) To analyze and diagnose problems you need the right technical equipment and specialist engineers. Often neither this equipment nor the specialists are available.

An interesting example for these problems was recently given by Mario Theissen (former BMW formula 1 team lead) in Auto Motor und Sport. "We once had a Brabham-BMW in Goodwood (must have been in the 80ies, comment from the editor). It took us all the experts of our house to make it run. The problem is electronics. You need to keep the components well maintained as there are no application systems and components available anymore today." Apparently BMW is thinking about building a more modern engine control technology that can be adapted to older racing cars from different time periods to solve the problem.
And this probably will be the solution also for other cars, such as the sports cars and GTs of the 80ies and 90ies to preserve them for the future. There will be a business building such an adaptable and configurable bus system and control electronics. And there will be computer development and tuning environments to configure these systems and even optimize them to be more fuel efficient and environmentally improved. Car owners maybe will have to spend 3'000 or 8'000 Euros to adapt their car, but that's little money if they can continue to use their loved future classic for another 5 or 10 years and create the base for value enhancement over the years.

Two additional thoughts.
What really helps of course is the fact that modern microprocessors are much more powerful than the technology from years ago. With this it will be easily possible to emulate and simulate what has been before.
From a business point of view the effort of reengineering ancient electronics is more viable the larger the volume of cars you can equip. This sort of goes against the notion that the more exclusive a car is the more expensive it can become as a classic. So there will be some trade off here.
But the chances are good that you can continue to drive your BMW M3 E30 until it's a true classic. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

How the design of car door and wing surface has gone more and more complex

When people compare cars they usually will look at the major design elements, such as the overall shape, the "face" and maybe the lights and the bottom, some will also look at the color however this is of course not really a design element. Few will actively notice the design tricks applied by the car manufacturers. One of these tricks is the the surface design of the car doors, the wins and the panels on each side of the car. While a few years ago theses surfaces were mostly flat and maybe rounded, maybe with some moldings, today more and more designers now use kind of "creases" and concave and convex surfaces. This is influenced also by the fact that most cars are painted in metallic colors that can make something out of these complex shapes. Take a look a modern cars yourself and compare them to old ones, you will notice the differences! By the way, the picture shows a Volkswagen Beetle/Bug, an Opel Kadett B, a Volkswagen Golf Mk1, a Mercedes 190E in the first row and the new BMW 5-series, Citroen C5, Volkswagen Golf Mk6 and the Mercedes C class in the second row.

Milestones - the BMW M1, closer to racing than most other cars

When BMW presented the BMW M1 in 1978 it was the first time for a long period after the BMW 507 that a true supercar was announced. But not all people fully appreciated the concept. The body was fiberglass, the engine had "only" six cylinders, while the price was on Ferrari 512 BB level offering 12 cyclinders and a lot more racing pedigree in comparison. BMWs plan had been to produce a homologation special to compete in international racing. However, due to a regulation change, there wasn't really anymore a good racing series to compete in with the car.
BMW produced 460 cars and then abandoned production due to lack of interest. They created their own racing series - Procar. Formula 1 and other famous racing drivers competed in an all BMW M1 racing series with runs before the formula 1 races. It was spectacular and exciting, but only lasted for two years. Later BMW M1s competed in the German championship, drove in Le Mans and participated in other series as Group 5 cars with some success.
The street car was very close to the racing car in reality. Same engine, same suspensions with slightly different setting, a bit more comfort. It sounded terrific and was actually able to compete with the 512BB in terms of performance despite the lack of engine volume and cylinders. The design done by Giugiaro is somewhat timeless and after a dip BMW M1 have continuously gained in value, reaching roughly 2-3 times their initial price today. There were only few colors and most seem to be either white, red or blue. I would take any of these colors ...

Being brave in car design doesn't (always) pay off!

Many people have been criticizing that each new Porsche looks like the model before. And they are right. But Porsche learned the hard way that it doesn't always pay off to be brave in designing cars. When they launched the Porsche 928 it was very different to anything they had done before. It had an 8 cylinder engine in the front, four seats, was wide and big and it really looked very different to even any other car on the road, maybe with the exception of the AMC Pacer. And you don't want to see this as a design icon. Well the car also suffered from some weaknesses including being very thirsty and having the aerodynamics of a Volkswagen Beetle. But most of these things got sorted out over time and the car actually became quite good. But not good enough to no being successful enough. And never since Porsche announced any radical car like the 928 any more.
Other examples needed? Look at the Bangle effect at BMW. Or look at the TVR Tasmin (called the Wedge). Or what about Pininfarina? Most if not all of his cars were more evolutions than revolutions and he know quite well why he worked like this. Beauty has to be accepted by the buyers and you can't stretch it too far.