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The Chrysler limo outside the radar station in YOLT used to drive the Norwegian PM in the 60s. This shot may have been inserted because Roald Dahl spent his summer holidays in the area as a kid. Possibly.
And of course there's the conflation of Dodge-Plymouth-Chrysler.
Aha, thanks. I know very little about cars.
Ford did similar things to other brands it took over...look at the DB-7. And the likes of Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo were lucky that after the 2008 crash Ford felt they had to resell them. (Not saying that GM were better...thinking of Saab.)
I think a Jaguar version of a Mondeo could have been fine, they just decided to dress it up in weird retro drag to make it a sort of kit car-style replica of a Jaguar as opposed to thinking about they could imbue that platform with Jaguarness in a new way. Luckily the guy who designed the DB7 joined them and made them relevant again.
And here's his lovely Mk 2!
Nice Supra's in this clip
Renault 5 Prototype
Dubbed ‘Reimagine’, the plan will see Jaguar models go all electric from 2025, with no new petrol or diesel engines on offer in all-new by the middle of the decade.
https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/jaguar-land-rover-plots-electric-car-and-post-brexit-future-new-mercedes-benz-s-class
The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach E is Ford’s Tesla Fighting Electric Pony Car
Looks like it's going to be a top seller.
I wouldn't buy one would you ?
I'd need to see it in the flesh to know if I like it or not. Their new Puma looks nasty in photos and yet whenever I see one I actually think they look quite good: very strange.
The Jaguar plan is understandable but the infrastructure still isn't there for fully electric vehicles yet: feels like a gamble.
I don't like the tablets they have, like the tesla's it lacks style imo.
It's a suv which are top sellers these days so that's another good strategy by ford. Personally i still prefer sportier cars to these.
The powertrains seem so refined compared to the dirty,smelly,noisy,complicated ice,gearboxes, etc which i am glad to see the end of after over a 100 years.
The battery technology is only in it's infancy and will get better over the years which will mean longer ranges and smaller lighter batteries and maybe even solar panels in the roof and other panels ?
The Clarkson Review: Toyota GR Yaris
By Jeremy Clarkson (Sunday Times, Feb. 21)
I really didn't want to drive the new Toyota Yaris. I'd seen in my diary that it was due to come for a week at the beginning of February and all through January I was filled with a constant, draining need to oil the service revolver and write a note to my children.
The Yaris is a car you buy because you think the Honda Jazz is a bit too racy. It's for recently widowed old ladies who need something to get them and their friend Peggy to the bridge club. That's it. It has no other purpose. It's completely unreviewable and when I learnt that the model I would test had a three-cylinder engine, I very nearly called Toyota to cancel the booking. That, however, would have been a very big mistake because the Yaris that turned up was the GR model, which means that, actually, it isn't really a Yaris at all.
To understand this car — and you need to because you are going to want one — you must delve into the rule book that governs international rallying.
If a carmaker wanted to enter a car into a rally in the Eighties, it had to produce 5,000 roadgoing versions, for ordinary people in ordinary showrooms. This is why we ended up with cars like the Lancia Delta Integrale and the Ford Escort Cosworth.
Later a new rule was introduced that said carmakers had to make only 200 roadgoing versions. That's why we got the short wheelbase Audi quattro, that nutty Peugeot 205 T16 and the ridiculous rear-engined Metro.
Today carmakers must produce a whopping 25,000 versions of a car they enter into a world championship rally. Which is why the sport is now full of dreary Hyundais and Volkswagen Polos, and no one watches it. The RAC rally used to be Britain's biggest spectator event. Now you get more people in the bedroom of someone with a temperature and a cough.
Toyota has plainly decided to do something about that. So instead of putting stickers and some knobbly tyres on an ordinary Yaris, it has built an all-new version — a version that shares almost no components at all with its bridge four brother. And now it has to find 25,000 people in the world who'll want to buy one.
First things first. The engine. It's a three-cylinder 1.6-litre turbo, which doesn't sound particularly rallyish. But here's the thing. It does. The noise may be artificial, but as you bumble along there's a deep, offbeat thrum, as if you're sharing the car with a snoring dog. It's tremendous.
Then, when you put your foot down at low speed in a high gear, it's like you've gently woken the dog. There's a stirring. A sense of enormous power coming to life. And it is enormous. The engine may by tiny, but it produces nearly 260 horsepower, which, in a car that weighs only about as much as a match, means some serious get up and go. Full-bore standing starts are hysterical because it sets off like a ball from the penalty spot.
To make sure none of the power is wasted, there's a four-wheel-drive system that moves the oomph to whichever wheel is best able to handle it at any given moment. There's even a small readout on the dash to show you what's going where, but if you are going quickly enough for the system to be working, trust me, you won't have either the time or the inclination to look at the dash. Let alone reach for your spectacles first.
This is a car that made me laugh out loud. I took it into my fields one morning and made a terrible mess, but I didn't care because it was a complete riot. And once I'd got the hang of how it handled and how the system that enables you to choose between Track, Sport or Normal made no discernible difference, I went onto the roads, which were made from sheet ice. And it was a riot there too.
When you feel the traction is gone in a normal car, there's always a hair-raising moment when you think, "Crikey, I hope I can rescue this situation," but in the Yaris, with its front and rear limited-slip differentials, you just think, "Oh goody. This'll be fun."
It's uncannily easy to control and because of that you feel like a driving god. Like you could win a rally. Like you are doing.
This is one of the most enjoyable and thrilling cars I've ever driven. It's like a puppy dog version of the Nissan GT-R and I adored it.
Drawbacks? Very few. The interior is a bit Yarisish and because the sat-nav screen sits on top of the dash under the rear-view mirror, there's an almighty blind spot. Oh, and you do sit quite high up, but that's because rallyists like it that way. In Formula One the drivers basically lie down as if they're in bed playing a video game — which they sort of are — whereas their counterparts in rallying like to imagine they're sitting upright at a desk, working.
There are other examples of this rally thinking too. Instead of an electric handbrake, which would be of no use at all in Corsica or among the lakes of Finland, you get a proper lever; it even disconnects drive to the rear wheels when you pull it.
Then there's the space in the back, by which I mean there isn't any space in the back. The enormous front seats mean there's no legroom, and because Toyota's motorsport aerodynamicists wanted a sloping roof so they could put a rear wing in the airflow, there's no headroom either.
In other ways, though, there's no evidence at all that it's a rally car. It's got sensors that tug at the wheel when you stray out of lane and all the other appurtenances of modern living. Perhaps the most incredible thing is the way that such a sport-focused car isn't particularly uncomfortable. It doesn't glide but it doesn't jar either. And even on a motorway the silly racing tyres fitted to my test car don't make a racket.
I suspect this may have something to do with the fact that there are 4,175 weld points in the GR Yaris, 259 more than in the normal car, along with 116ft of structural adhesive. The body, then, is as rigid as a cathedral and that gives a sense of great quality and refinement.
I've saved the best bit till last, though. Prices for a standard car start at less than £30,000. Even the one I drove with all the bells and whistles and red brake callipers is only £33,495. I can think of nothing, apart from this newspaper and a McDonald's Happy Meal, that represents such good value. And that truly makes this car perfectly in tune with the times.
Today people have a problem with privilege. The famous must beat themselves with twigs, the educated must drop their aitches and royalty must fly in the back of the plane. Which is why wealth must be stealthy. You can only swan around in a Ferrari or a McLaren if you have skin thicker than a thick-cut pizza.
You may think, if currently you drive a Porsche 911 or something of that ilk, that the Yaris GR, a small three-cylinder Japanese hatchback, would be quite a comedown, but it really isn't. It's that good, but you'll need to get your order in quickly. Toyota is making 25,000 of them and that's not going to be enough. Not by a long way.
Take the DBX and stick the DB9's rear lights on it... job done :)
Are the side strakes too obviously Aston? Well we can just take them from the Bentley Bentayga instead!
The logo also looks vaguely familiar 8->
Although the wings seem to be very widely used: https://listcarbrands.com/26-car-logos-with-wings/
As someone with no knowledge about car design in any way: Aren't we at a point (as in so many other design fields) where everything has kind of been done in some way at some point anyway and the question is more what you pick and how you combine it rather than coming up with something fully new? I see the comparisons you make, but there are also differences and really what else is a designer to do with an SUV? Are there any examples of something you (and I mean everyone here) would consider fully (or even mostly) original from the not too distant past? Or any examples and explanation what you would consider a well done homage as opposed to a blatant rip-off. I would find that very interesting. Thank you.
I'm sure I wasn't the only person to see Woods' crashed car and ask 'is that an Aston?'.
I've mentioned before that the Ferrari roma looks very similar to the db10.
I found these interesting views.
Ferrari re-releases Aston Martin DB10
https://www.carindigo.com/news/ferrari-re-releases-aston-martin-db10
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/top-gear-tv/heres-your-first-look-new-series-top-gear-telly
There's also a yellow car which appears to be a Ferrari 355 (as seen in GoldenEye) but which looks more like a Pontiac Fiero with a bodykit on it to me :)
https://www.motoring.com.au/honda-launches-level-3-driverless-tech-in-japan-128829/
Anyone like driverless cars ?
I wouldn't trust them.
Living With A Citroen Ami
I think this could be a fun little car for city life. For instance I work only 2.5 miles
from my home, so this would be great for commuting.
Cars of the People. When he mentioned another French car back in the 70s, which could be driven by 14yr olds and even those who'd lost their license due to driving while drunk !
It's a death trap.
Now, some cars I dont see quite often, but recently... Well, it was a surprise to find a Dodge (I don't know the model, though) parked near the local art center. And in Paris, I saw an old-timer Rolls (didn't get the model either), a Jaguar S-Type, and this :
Yup, a LEVC TX. First time I saw one of these, but for a little while, I was wondering what it was doing so far from London.