Reasons to get rid of your current car and buy another one

There are (at least) two different kind of people, people who own very few cars during their live and only swap them if they really have to, and people who always find a reason to sell a car and buy another one. I am clearly fitting into the second group, having owned quite a number of cars during my life (yet). When I investigate the reasons why I decided to sell one car and go for a new one, then some returning patterns pop up:
1) Change of requirements - new requirements need to be fulfilled, i.e. the ability to pull a trailer or to fit three kids and friends including luggage into the car. Or the need to have an automatic transmission for other people to operate the car
2) Economical reasons - sell a car now, as the successor model is not yet announced to get a higher price. Sell a car now while it's still under warranty compared to selling it later. Get rid of a car before big repair jobs need to happen
3) Lack of space in the garage - to buy a new car, you need to have space first. When you have the space, it would be unwise to not use it and therefore buy a new car
4) Being bored, having seen it - some cars just can't keep up the excitement after months or years of ownership
5) Better technology available - the successor car is just too much better than what you have
6) Features you are eagerly missing - if you want a headup display you need to buy one of the few cars that have one
7) Collecting - there are many reasons to change the nature of your car collection
And of course there are many other reasons. Basically, there's always a good reason to sell a car and find a new one, as the buying process is just too much fun to stick with your existing car.

The not yet announced (sports) cars I am really waiting for

Over the year many manufacturers announce new cars to be delivered this, next or even next after next year (i.e. the new McLaren). But there are also cars, I am really thrilled finally seeing, that haven't been announced yet. Here's a list to start the discussion:
1) New Lotus Elise/Exige
2) The successor of the Lamborghini Gallardo
3) The coming below 1'000 kg Ferrari super car
4) The Honda NSX successor
5) A true BMW M3 (E30) successor

Actually I got out of ideas quicker than expected. But maybe somebody else can extend the list?

Octane picks the greatest cars from 1900 to 2010 - have they got it right?

Octane Magazine just published their view on what the greatest cars between 1900 and 2010 are.
As we know picking the best or greatest is a true passion for motoring journalists. Well, let's see what they came up with. Here the top threes for every ten year since 1900:
1900-1909
Mercedes 60HP (runners-up: 1907 Vanderbilt Renault, 75HP Fiat, 60HP Napier)
1910-1919
Vauxhall Prince Henry (runners--up: Rolls Silver Ghost Alpine Eagle, Hispano-Suiza H6, Packhard Twin-Six)
1920-1929
Bentley Speed Six (runners-up: Bugatti T35, Mercedes-Benz SSK, Lancia Lambda)
1930-1939
Alfa-Romeo 8C 2300 (runners-up: Jaguar SS100, Duesenberg SJ, Mercedes-Benz 500/540K)
1940-1949
Jaguar XK120 (runners-up: Bentley MkVI, Porsche 356, Cadillac V8)
1950-1959
Lancia Aurelia B20GT (runners-up: Bentley Continental, Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing, BMW 507)
1960-1969
Jaguar E-Type (runners-up: Jaguar XJ6, Lamborghini Miura, Mini Cooper S)
1970-1979
Porsche Carrera RS (runners-up: Range Rover, Lamborghini Countach, Lancia Stratos)
1980-1989
Ferrari F40 (runners-up: Ferrari 288 GTO, Audi Quattro, Porsche 959)
1990-1999
McLaren F1 (runners-up: Bugatti EB110, Ferrari 550 Maranello), Lamborghini Diablo)
2000-2010
Aston Martin V12 Vantage (Bentley Continental GT, Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom)

What a selection of cars. Obviously it's very difficult to compare a Mini with a Range Rover and a Ferrari F40. So is the list really helpful? And would I agree with the journalists' selction?
Well, I fully agree that the Alfa-Romeo 8C 2300, the Ferrari F40 and even the McLaren F1 belong on such a list. But in some cases there seems to be a bit too much patriotism involved, or why would you put the Aston Martin V12 Vantage on this list, or the 200x Rolls-Royce Phantom? On the other side, some really exciting and important cars are missing, i.e. the Ferraro 250 GT SWB, the iconic 250 GTO or the Pagani Zonda that I would prefer against the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Some cars seem to be underrated, I certainly would prefer the Lamborghini Miura against the E-Type for the 60ies, however that's a tough choice to make as these two cars are so different.
But as said, picking the greatest cars of 110 years car building history is an almost impossible task. I still love to read such articles, as so many memories are triggered.

Car seats as a symptom for technology evolution

Modern car seats are engineering masterpieces. The difference between what you get in a modern BMW or Audi to what you had in a Jaguar or BMW in the 50ies or 60ies couldn't be more striking. In the old days car builders did the minimum to allow the drivers seat somewhat comfortable. In sportscars they did even less, often the driver sat basically on the floor of the car or in very rudimentary bucket seats. Since then a lot has happened. Modern seats support the driver by moving electrically, storing seating positions (of more than one driver), can be heated and cooled, and some even do offer a massage to the driver. But there's more. Modern seats also have airbags built inside and they track whether actually somebody is sitting on them. And in some cases seats vibrate to wake up the driver or make him aware that he is leaving the road.
No wonder that modern seats have become much more heavy, probably many hundreds of percentages heavier than seats in the old times. A modern seat can easily weight 30, 40 or 50 kg, or even more, compared to 5 or 15 kg in the past.
But would we want to go back? Probably not, as today we sit much longer in these cars and our back is glad for optimal support. Maybe there's a way to get a bit more from both worlds, some of the lightweight racing seats available in super cars are good examples.

The best 14 car movies ever?

I do love movies, I like watching movies in good quality, looking at the pictures and listening to the sound and noise. So what would be more logical for me than to combine my passion for cars and movies? I collected quite a few of these movies over time and maybe it's valuable for you to share my top 14.
A few of these movies are very well known, for example "Le Mans" (my favorite, never before and after have more car scenes with less dialogues been wrapped in a cinema movie), "The Italian Job" (I have the original version and the remake on the list, but the original beats the remake 5:1, just watch the opening scene with the Lamborhini Miura in the Alps), of course "Bullit" (watch the famous pursuit scene with the Ford Mustang) and "Grand Prix" (many really fascinating formula one scenes).
But there are also a couple of movies rarely shown, such as "Rendezvous". The idea behind Rendezvous was to drive through Paris in about 12 minutes (as the camera hooked onto the car couldn't capture more without changing the film), regardless of speed limits, other cars or people walking over the street. Another very rare movie is "La Passione". Chris Rea made this movie about Graf Berghe von Trips and his racing career (you'll love the shark nose Ferrari formula 1 car that they built to make this movie) and it's so rare I haven't even been able to find a copy myself. But I am sure I will love it.
But if I have to pick the best of the best, "Le Mans" is my choice. And, I will comment on memorable TV series another time.
One comment for TVR fans, both the remake of the Italian Job and Sword Fish feature a TVR Tuscan Speed 6.

Ferrari 512 BB - design icon and supercar

The Ferrari 512 BB and its predecessor 365 GT 4 BB were true design icons. Despite being very much behind Lamborghini adopting the mid engine scheme the car was quite a success. "BB" stands for Berlinetta Boxer but the engine actually wasn't a boxer design but a V-12 with an angle of 180 degrees. Ferrari built 387 365 GT4 BBs, recognizable because of the six exhaust pipes, 929 512 BBs and 1'007 BBIs between 1973 and 1981/82. Power output was always claimed to be around 340/360 HP depending on the way measured and the honesty.
What made the car special was the fact that you basically could unfold it (see second picture). For a 70ies sportscar the BB was quite heavy with more than 1'500 kg. And it felt like this. Best driving speed was in the range between 130 and 200 km/h and on the highway. This was clearly not a car built for the race track of the alps. The seating position was quite okay and even the visibility was quite good for a mid engine car. The engine of course was spectacular and so was the noise it produced, especially the carburetor versions 365 GT4 BB and 512 BB. Fuel consumption was impressive and you knew very soon why the petrol tank was so large. I loved the sound and the look of the car, but didn't fully enjoy the driving. That's why I sold it and swapped it against a 246 GT which clearly was a much more engaging car to drive. But the design of the 512 BB was really spot on, thanks to Pininfarina.

Kicking off the TVR Grantura Mk2 restoration project

I have talked about the old TVR Grantura Mk2 before. And about the plan to restore it. Well, soon the work will start. As this is not something that you do very often in your life combined with the fact that the experiences will be interesting for quite a number of people, we decided to properly document the restoration. So we started with a professional photo session of the car before the restoration. The picture shows the setup. We will document each stage of the restoration process and submit the resulting article to one of the classic car magazines if they are interested. If everything goes well, the work will be completed by next summer. Let's keep the fingers crossed. I will post updates on the progress on this blog from time to time.

Why is there no "KERS" in supercars? Where is the hybrid supercar?

Despite the fact that often supercar manufacturers copy wrong or right decisions from Formula 1 cars, i.e. 10 cylinder engines, none of the recently presented super cars featured a KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). This is somewhat surprising! By adding some 40-50 kg you can add some extra power (80 HP in F1) and torque to your car and at the same time reduce the fuel consumption if done rightly. Adding a KERS could mean to power the car with a smallish turbo enhanced six cylinder engine instead of putting a 10 or 12 cylinder block into the car. But not even Lexus thought about this when building the LF-A. Neither has Audi (R8), Ferrari (458) or Mercedes (SLS). Maybe it's because of the marketing guys. You don't want to have your customers think about a Toyota Prius when picking a supercar. But calling it KERS this might be a different story and it would help the buyers to justify buying such a car.

Lexus LF-A - have we really waited for this?

Lexus has announced the new Lexus LF-A just recently and it has been covered extensively all over the world. This is a 375'000 Euro supercar with a high revving V10, 560 HP, 1'450 kg weight and impressive performance and road handling (we assume).
It took them 11 years to develop it and the first cars only get shipped in a year or so.
While the car looks impressive (although the design almost looks like a retro modern car) and there's certainly a lot of technology and engineering going into this car, I really wonder whether we have waited for this.
Some of my readers may remember my post on the Connaught D-Type GT V10. Yes, you see Tim Bishop, the Chief Engineer at the steering wheel on the picture here. Well, the team around Tim developed something that I would reckon is more creative at probably a small fraction of the project cost of the Lexus LF-A. There are similarities though. Both cars have a V10 in the front, though the engine in the Connaught is much more in the center of the car, basically between the driver and the co-driver. Both try to to build a lightweight car. The Connaught is 850 kg while the Lexus weighs 1'450 kg. While the performance of the Connaught may be a bit less impressive due to the smaller engine and "only" 300 HP, they achieved to actually seat four people and still have a boot. And what is most intriguing for me, the Connaught has a built-in hybrid module (kind of a KERS) while Lexus, the mother of the hybrid technology, doesn't. Last, but not least, the sticker price for the Connaught is 100'000 GBP, while the price tag for the Lexus LF-A is supposed to be more than 3 times of this.
So, this brings me back to the point, that most of today's supercars and this includes the Lexus LF-A lack creativity and are just evolutions of concepts from the 80ies and 90ies.

The BMW 5 GT, a new category or just another retro failure?

When I recently walked through the streets I spotted a car that I thought is the new BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo (BMW 5 GT). Well, in reality it was a Citroen C5 (2nd picture) and of course I discovered my error when getting closer to the car. And of course the two cars are not really looking like twins but at least not that different from the back neither. And, for a car that is supposed to define a new category, at least that's what BMW and the motor journalists are claiming, the car should look more unique.
Well, if you take one more step back, you will actually find out, that similar cars did exist in the past. I only pictured two of them, the first and second Audi 100 Avant and the Tatra 613. Do they look familiar to you?
Now, there's one problem. These cars were all not very successful, to not say they were a failure. No wonder, that for example Audi decided to build a proper station wagon as a repacement fo the pictured Avant. So, BMW might well face a problem. At least for me, it's very unclear why I should buy the 5 GT instead of the better looking coming BMW 5 Series Touring. But, let the market proof whether I am right or wrong.

We still lack some good online sites focusing on classic cars!

Recently I was thinking on where to really find good information on classic cars online. So I started to summarize the different information sources. Here's what I found as categories and examples:

Online Pure Plays
http://www.pistonheads.com/
Focusing on sportscars they do a good job in organizing a community, a car ad market and good editorial content around typical british sportscars and some others.
http://www.heise.de/autos/
German speaking online car magazine focusing on mainly new and common cars.
http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/1000.asp
Mainly an online car market for classic and modern sportscar. Some editorial content (“Magazine”) such as car of the week and driving reports.
http://www.barchetta.cc
Content and specifically picture rich website focusing on international classic car events, but centering around Ferraris and Maseratis.

Car Club websites
Many around, some quite good, some quite boring. Here’s a good example with lots of information:
http://www.tvr-car-club.co.uk/

Brand/car type dedicated online resources
There are many specialized sites out there gathering and distributing information on one specific car or car brand. Here’s an excellent example focusing on the Lotus Eleven:
http://lotuseleven.org/
Here’s another showing all the known TVR Granturas:
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/serel/

Online discussion forums
Some of the online forums are extremely well maintained and really helpful when you run into issues with your classic car, i.e. the one focusing on Mercedes SL R107:
http://www.sternzeit-107.de

Online print magazine offsprings
http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/
Octane is a print magazine. The site gives some of the content of the magazine and of course a car sales market place. No link between offline and online subscription. Compared to other car magazine sites quite a bit of content. Nicely presented but not as good as the print magazine.
http://www.motor-klassik.de
One example of a print magazine with online channel. Quite a bit of content (mostly re-use from the print magazine).

Blogsphere
Many out there, sometimes quite difficult to find, when you don’t know where to start looking for it. Here’s an excellent example
http://wwwbollyblog.blogspot.com/
A blog focusing on Australian sportscars mainly. Lots of good photos and background information on Bollwells and other rare (Australian) cars. Well done, John!

SUMMARY
I probably have only scratched the surface with all of this. But I still feel I haven’t found a really well done online classic car site. I would be interested in other people’s insights!

Appreciating other people's classic cars

Often, when I walk through the streets, I spot rare cars I would have never thought about owning them. It's not because these are bad cars or ugly, it's just that they wouldn't fit my preferences and ideas. Just like this Bristol I discovered yesterday in Zurich. I had to smile and take a closer look when I walked by this car. It's probably one of very few Bristols in Switzerland. And it looked like being in good shape. I appreciate people buying these cars and keeping them well maintained. How boring would our streets be if there were only Volkswagen Golfs and Audis. Keep on, fellow petrolheads!

One of the better innovations in cars - the head-up display

I have been talking a lot about all the things that make driving more boring or create distraction for the driver. But there's one innovation in modern cars that I really like - the head-up display. When I search for a 5-series BMW this was a requirement high up on my list. And I loved it from the the first day on. The head-up display gives you your current speed or the direction (arrow) you need to take to reach your destination. And you can see all of this without taking your eyes from the street. This is really practical and increases road safety I think. However there are a number of things I wasn't fully happy with. Firstly, you couldn't program that thing. I would have loved to also see the current gear for example or the ABS indicator. Secondly, I can't understand why it's only available with the 5-series but not with the 3-series I bought after. And thirdly and most importantly, I don't understand why you have to pay more than 1'800 USD for this feature and even have to take an automatic air condition with it on top. The cost to produce the TFT screen unit and the controlling computer must be close to or lower than 200 USD, so everything else is margin for BMW? Isn't there a thing like price elasticity? Wouldn't they be able to sell 100% or 300% more of these units if they offered them cheaper?
And last but not least, if you would design a car with a head-up display in mind the whole dashboard could be structured and modelled very differently. So, here again, is a great chance to come up with something new and different. Go for it!

Modern cars causing more accidents because it's so easy to get distracted?

I just read a newspaper article summarizing the problems caused by people using mobile phones or writing SMS while steering a car. Apparently people drunk (0.8) drive better than people using the phone. And writing an SMS increases the risk of an accident by the factor 23. Research teams observed truck drivers moving for 140 m without watching the street while writing an SMS. It's proven that talking on the phone reduces the driver's awareness for the things happening on the street.
What is interesting is that the article points out that one reason that people think they can manage talking on the phone or writing SMS while driving is the fact that operating a car today is so easy and can be so boring. This comes back to what is a regular topic on my blog. Modern cars do so many things on their own that the driver isn't involved anymore into the real driving. The only thing you do in a modern car is steering and pushing break and throttle pedals. Maybe you switch on the indicator now and then but that's it. You don't need to switch on lights or wipers. You don't need to monitor water temperature or oil pressure. You don't need to switch gears or use a clutch pedal. And you don't even need to think whether the next curve actually can be mastered at the speed you are doing because there's a speed limit and that's low enough. And so on. You get the point. And all the driving assistance systems that get added to the cars now make it worse. Soon the only thing you do in a car is deciding when you want to start it. It couldn't be more boring. No wonder people start to use their mobile phone. And modern mobile phones are full-function computers....
So, maybe one of the reaons why there are less accidents caused by classic and vintage cars is that drivers actually focus on what they do, driving the car.

Why I prefer to change gears manually (*)

Soon most people will not remember the time when shifting gears in a car meant pushing the clutch pedal, manually changing from one gear to another by moving a lever and the releasing the clutch pedal, all in a subtle and well controlled way. More and more cars come with automatic gearboxes or robotized manual gear boxes and less and less cars actually do have a clutch pedal (the third pedal on the left side in the car).
But, myself, I still love to shift manually and that's why my 1987 Mercedes 300 SL has a manual gearbox. And with this it's a rarity as roughly 90% of all the 300 SLs were delivered with an automatic gearbox and offically the manual version wasn't even imported into Switzerland. Selecting the manual gearbox in the 80ies made sense though. The hand shifted 300 SL was not only quicker it was also more fuel efficient (8-15% depending on the driving cycle). Also the automatic gearbox only had four gears while the manual gearbox had five. Since then a lot of progress has been made. Modern automatic transmissions and even more the now fashionable double-clutch-gearboxes beat the average driver with a manual gearbox both in terms of acceleration 0-100 km/h and fuel efficiency. So there's no reason to pick a manual gearbox today, you would say. Well, wrong. In my eyes there are at least three reasons to still go for manual. Firstly, only the manual gearbox makes you really feel involved into the driving and the process of switching gears. Clutching and de-clutching and double-clutching, this all makes you experience what's happening between the engine and the wheels. Secondly, it's about being in control. Most (if not all) of these new gearboxes will only do what you ask it to do, if it makes sense for the "system". So you can't change to fifth gear for example if the speed is to low or the gearbox will automatically change gears even if you are in manual mode, if the driving conditions make the control unit think that the gear should be changed. So, you don't really have full control. It's like if you were walking into a Davidoff-shop, order a box of cigars and when you want to pay your wallet tells you that you can't have the money because smoking is bad for your health (which is true, but you get the point, don't you?). The third reason for not selecting the DSG or automatic box is the extra weight and the extra money that comes or goes with it.
So, I made my case. But you may have noticed the "*" in the title. Yes, there are situations where I prefer automatic gear boxes and my everyday car has one too. But if it's about fun, involvement and control I prefer the manual one. Except I probably would take the Ferrari Scuderia with the F1 gearbox as on the track it is so much easier to drive. But I am only on a track so often, which means for most of the other cars I am going to buy in the future a manual gearbox is going to be it, or not?