The GQ Man's Ride

This is what a gentleman's car would look like when he trans the continent.

Men's style magazine, GQ collaborated closely with Citroen and this is what you get,
GQbyCitroen.

A gorgeous conceptual project of an ambitious design-study to define the refined ride of the stylish New Age Guy .

Perfect. Stylishly prim and fussy.

Q ....Never be fashionably late ever gain.

In the mean time, just fall in love with the DS3 ;-)

It's designer penned both.

Gina is a Gorgeous Shape Shifter

No , Gina ain't some transvestite off the streets (no offense though) , mind you.

But

a revolutionary concept car

that has helped shaped all of the current generation of dramatic

'Flame Surfacing' BMWs for the last 7 years.

And yes, it has taken Gina a full 7 years to come out of the closet... :p

Chris Bangle, the chief designer of the new wave BMWs, has the type of industry-wake-up call vision quite like non other in quite a while.

Who can ignore the controversial 7-Series, the viper-esque 1-Series and the bullish 6- Series?

They are at once jarring as they are pleasing to the aesthetic senses.

With odd proportions, strategically placed ridge lines all over as if carved out of stone by millions of years of wind or water erosion and cleverly dissecting panel gaps, the BMWs of today, are icons of maverick.


And one look at Gina and one can see where the genetic oddities came from.

But Gina is more than being a design mother ship.

This car is a headliner because , get this , she is a space frame car wrapped in fabric.

Of course, it ain't the normal fixed space frame we have in our cars, but one that has movable components that help morph the high tech fabric swathed over the outside.

What this means is that

we have a car that morphs in shape.

No panel gaps. No transformer here. Instead...

Everything is shape-shifting.

Like a giant reptilian-being, the doors open up like mysterious arms, the headlights 'blink' open like an awakened beast. The rear spoiler protrudes up perkier when speed numbers go illegal. When it needs to breathe more, the nostrils can flare up bigger . Even the steering wheel, gear knob and all other controls within and the seats form out of no where to engage your position within. Kinky at best, alien trap at worst.

For the first time in history,

FORM DOES MEET FUNCTION. AND FUNCTION MEETS FORM.

And one can only stare in awe at this magnificent car as light pings onto its surface and flows into liquid...

Emotional. Indeed.
Q

PINK mobile

In the recent past, PINK was a color for someone 'batting for the Other Team' or a blatant display of a European Playboy lifestyle or meeting the whims of a spoilt heiress;

a color of decadence and lacking in social normality and conformality.

Indeed , PINK is a color of love, sensuality, angst, rebellion and maverick-ness.

Like , Orange, it is a modern color of very recent history.

Hardly surprising then, it is a color that society still takes some getting used to.

The following PINK rides were made to ferry and compliment the iconoclast beings that their 'owners' were (Pink Panther, Barbie and Lady Penelope Cruz).


The Pink Panther car is a 7 m long , 1.8 m wide limo with a 70000cc engine, it’s a drivable stretched-limo sports car but with boudoir like furnishings within to make it the coolest Love Wagon. No seats, just a day bed to Romanticize your Other or waft away to dream land in the pad-lounge with caviar, champagne and chiffon, as your chauffeur lets the world zoom past.
It's on auction sale now. The price? If you need ask, you're not in the league for running.




The New Beetle Barbie Edition will have a limited run of 13 units, which will be distributed throughout Volkswagen's dealer network. Every detail is carefully thought out .The special edition Bug costs 262,500 Mexican pesos (US$24,171 or €18,807), in other words, almost 5 times more expensive than a bog standard B (Itself ain't cheap to begin with). For the confident, independent and trendy only.




A heavily modified Ford Thunderbird replaces the previous Pink Rolls Royce, this 10m long supercar-limo is an 'everything for any situation car' ( a.k.a a glam-Bat Mobile).For sale at Auction or for Hire only (so you're either very rich to afford one or very rich and still can't afford one).


Parker enjoys the supercar-drive. Lady Penelope Cruz lavishes in sheer luxury with blistering pace and space.

A Pink Ride for different occasions: FAB1 Thunderbird supercar limo to arrive in style after a trans-continental traverse, the FAB2 Thunderbird sports car for thrills and spills and FAB3 Ford Streetka roadster for punting care-freely along the country side.


For the rest of us brave, poor folks, you can at at least sleep on it and dream.^^


Q

Phuture Rides 4x4 U

When you want the sleekness of a coupe and the all-terrain brutish capability, ok maybe just to look it, of a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) , what do you get?

Currently, nothing this side of a Dodge Caliber fits the bill.

But , as I'm still(quite) a young chap whose still into my Sport-car Lovin phase of my life, I'd be thinking 5-10 years down the line, on what I would want for Christmas then. ;OP

Enter the Coupe-SUV.

It's hardly an original and ground breaking idea and car manufacturers have been toying around the idea for years, but it's only in the last couple where the SUV segment had seen significant growth even in Urban landscapes where people will even complain about having muddy shoes. Posers, you read?

So the attmepts of late have become more realistic and not just a flight of fancy to tickle fans.

Here are my favs from Premium brands (5-10 years down the road, remember?) ? :


1) What you want is Brand-pedigree bar-none. The Land Rover is iconic. It's LRX , below, has the power to conquer the Urban Jungle. Edgy yet Brutish. Sleek and chiseled with strong relevance to traditional lineage. Perfecto. :)




2) If the BMW X3 is too rough and small n the X5 is still not satiable enough, enter the X6, premuim style for the sophisticated you. Atypical of BMW, sensuous.




Swoon . ^^

Hot Hot Wheels

Iconic Toy car maker Hot Wheels celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.

Mattel, it's famed maker, seeked real automobile designers, whom surely had grown up inspired by the toy cars themselves, to come up with designs for its miniatures.

Hot Wheels invited major automakers to submit ideas that would be turned into a line of 1/64 scale toy cars. Six car companies sent at least three designs apiece, which were judged by a panel that included Hot Wheels executives and designers as well as editors from the Los Angeles Times, Car and Driver magazine, and Men's Journal magazine.

In fact, all the designers who took part admitted that such an opportunity to design for Hot Wheels was a dream come true and were built upon ideas that had been boiling for years since they were kids. Pretty much like how many girls dream of dressing up Barbie when they were growing up.

Let's take a peek at the winning designs which we'll be able to purchase off the shelves soon. Wow.:p

The Winner: Hot Wheels HW40.
'Cos this'll win. It's an in-house design. Duhz. (It's too over-the-top; my least favourite actually)

Chevroletor
Designer: Amaury Diaz-Serrano
The Chevroletor is based on a combination of the 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS and several speed record cars from the 1930s. Diaz-Serrano has models of both - as well as a model of Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator - in the vast toy collection he drew upon for inspiration.

Dodge XP-07
Designer: Mark Reizen
It was like a Dodge version of the Batmobile. This one would be turbine powered, just like the experimental Chrysler turbine cars of the 1960s.

Ford Gangster Grin
Designer: Steve Gilmore
The bullet shape in the center of the car's grill was inspired by a similar shape on a 1949 Ford. The overall shape of the car was inspired by customized Mercury cars of the 1950s. Fellow designer-colleagues commented that the car had a "grin" to it, which inspired the name.

Honda Racer
Designer: Guillermo Gonzalez
The Honda "H" emblem formed the basis of this twin-hulled design. Each half of the car resembles one of Honda's 1960s Formula 1 race cars. The tiny V10 replica engine is, likewise, modeled on a 1960s Honda racing engine with the added impact of exaggerated exhaust pipes.

Lotus Concept
Designer:Russell Carr
Carr, Lotus's chief designer, is responsible for the modern look of Lotus sports cars. That look, taken to a thick-muscled extreme, is embodied in this model. Even on a small scale, the Lotus Concept looks fast, quick and light.


Mitsubishi Double Shotz
Designer: Gary Ragle
The "plan view," or the way car looks from above, is of utmost importance in a car that will be pushed around on the floor.
From overhead, you would be able to see that the Double Shotz has two engines, one in the front and one in back. The Mitsubishi faithful wll recognize them as models of the same engines used in the Mitsubishi Eclipse and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.


As one would have noticed by now, both in the eventual designs and the thoughts that inspired them, these miniatures have true car lovers in mind.

Enthusiasts of the respective car brands will not only be able to relate to the cars as though they were the real deal, they'll secretly be hoping the possibility of whipping out cheques at the showrooms as well.

When these miniatures reach the Toy stores this Christmas, expect to see throngs of rabid and weeping fans made out of grown men, bull fighting to lay their calloused hands on them. ;)

Palpable.

Hot wheels. Hot stuff.

New Audi A3 ?

I've always been a big fan of Audi cars.

Their designs are clean and uncluttered. Sleek yet Muscular in shape and stance. An air of sophistication and the message that says 'I'm part of the executive crowd and I've arrived' look is undeniable.

Probably the only car manufacturer that truly knows how to exude 'high quality' and 'high engineering ' in the metal.

Anyway, a young chap like me is, needless to say, enthralled by small wonders that zip around in style and confidence.

So yeah, these are the pictures of Audi's MetroProject Quattro.

As it's name suggests, it a Metropolitan-dream. Compact, stylish, high-quality, sophisticated. And the icing being the application of Audi's famed Quattro (that's advanced 4WD for the uninitiated)system to give it sports-car like handling. WOOOO!!

And from the looks of it, the readiness of the whole package could mean this could well on its way to b'come the all-new Audi A3.

On all counts, I'm excited. :-)