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  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,338
    The design had been previously seen as the AC 378 GT Zagato. Would have been a good Bond car.

    8b0faa441b43c568308aa434c5ab45e283a708e3.jpg
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    edited April 2023 Posts: 2,515
    Hyundai Ioniq 6 wins 2023 World Car of the Year
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited April 2023 Posts: 16,338
    I went to the excellent Easter classic show at Brooklands today and these lads had found each other.

    ME16830X_o.jpg

    ME16830Z_o.jpg

    ME16830Y_o.jpg

    The S1 (correct green/tartan interior) owner had even put a little button on top of the gear knob.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,108
    Lovely stuff! @mtm
  • Posts: 5,989
    Today, during my sunday afternoon walk, I saw a Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am. Lots of memories with this car, from Smokey and the Bandit to Knight Rider.

    508604-maintenant-630-000-pour-la-pontiac-trans-am-de-burt-reynolds.jpg
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,338
    There was a KITT replica at Brooklands too, lots of fun.
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    edited April 2023 Posts: 2,515
    MG Cyberster
    Is this the best looking MG ever ?
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,341
    MG Cyberster
    Is this the best looking MG ever ?

    The design looks very balanced, unfortuately it has nothing at all that tells us it's a MG, except the badge. No nods to marque history, at best, like its predecessors, it is a low-slung convertible with a long bonnet. The rear lights (minus the arrows) come rather close to the Polestar design. And the doors will be too expensive for production.

    On the other hand, when the MGB was designed in 1962, as a successor of the aged MGA, it featured many design elements of the expensive GT cars of that time, i.e. Ferrari and Aston Martin. So all in all, it is probably OK to invent the marque anew.

  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    To be honest, if I didn't know better, I would say that it was a new Honda S2000. :(
  • Posts: 5,989
    Saw a Caterham parked near a house the other day. Nice little car.

    1965LotusSevenSeriesII.jpg
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    Posts: 2,515
    Polestar 4 ... no rear window

    These cars lack style imo. Anyone like these expensive volvo's
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    edited April 2023 Posts: 4,341
    No rear window!? That is a knock-out criterion for me. I think the electrification of cars should avoid areas where there are simpler solutions, like rear mirrors and windows. If the electronics fail, you don't know what's going on behind you. Also, the added cameras and wiring probably weigh the same as the saved glass - and in an EV with a heavy battery it makes no sense at all to save the weight of the rear window.
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    edited April 2023 Posts: 2,515
    Volkswagen ID 7
    Better looking than the Polestar 4 imo and comes with a rear window....

    Nice interior except for the tablet,speedo setup.
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    Polestar 4 ... no rear window

    These cars lack style imo. Anyone like these expensive volvo's

    No rear-window, but a full glass roof. Right.
    That should really help with parking (or do these reliably park on their own by now?)
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,341
    Volkswagen ID 7
    Better looking than the Polestar 4 imo and comes with a rear window....

    Nice interior except for the tablet,speedo setup.

    The exterior design does not exactly get my heart racing. And the dashboard is replaced by a tablet attracting greasy fingermarks. Volkswagen, is this how you want to sell cars? No, thank you.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited April 2023 Posts: 9,019
    I'm not planning to buy another car until both of our present ones (diesel-powered, one 15, one 7 1/2 years old) break down entirely, and I'm also not sure that it would be a new BEV instead of a used internal-combustion one, as long as they are available.

    But I do think that those Polestars look infinitely better than those VWs, and I'd have to dig deeper into the market to find one I (theoretically) might be ready to buy. Polestar has "pre-owned" cars on its website, and they cost around 40,000 euros for a Polestar 2 with only about 20K kms on the clock, which may be acceptable if it has to be.

    This is entirely without regard to battery capacity/range (my main criterium if I were looking for a BEV), but I don't feel like getting into this until I have to. I probably wrote this before, but I'm not doing the environment a favour dumping our good old diesels on the market for others to use them with a much bigger mileage than we accrue and instead buying a BEV which has its own heavy CO2 footprint just for having been manufactured. It will probably take beyond my reasonably remaining life expectancy to get that even.

    Edit/PS: And I'm certainly not going to buy a car from that psychopath Elon Musk, even if the alternative is Chinese.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,341
    @j_w_pepper , I subscribe to everything you said here!
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,019
    Well, thank you, @zebrafish...I'm not really surprised for some reason. Let's take the old BMW 3-series convertible for a spin at some time, while it lasts!
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,108
    j_w_pepper wrote: »
    I'm not planning to buy another car until both of our present ones (diesel-powered, one 15, one 7 1/2 years old) break down entirely, and I'm also not sure that it would be a new BEV instead of a used internal-combustion one, as long as they are available.

    But I do think that those Polestars look infinitely better than those VWs, and I'd have to dig deeper into the market to find one I (theoretically) might be ready to buy. Polestar has "pre-owned" cars on its website, and they cost around 40,000 euros for a Polestar 2 with only about 20K kms on the clock, which may be acceptable if it has to be.

    This is entirely without regard to battery capacity/range (my main criterium if I were looking for a BEV), but I don't feel like getting into this until I have to. I probably wrote this before, but I'm not doing the environment a favour dumping our good old diesels on the market for others to use them with a much bigger mileage than we accrue and instead buying a BEV which has its own heavy CO2 footprint just for having been manufactured. It will probably take beyond my reasonably remaining life expectancy to get that even.

    Edit/PS: And I'm certainly not going to buy a car from that psychopath Elon Musk, even if the alternative is Chinese.

    I agree entirely.

    I do quite like the Fiat 500e, at the moment the only electric car that actually looks like a car instead of a space vehicle. Imo that is of course.

    I heard Lancia will come back and it will become Stellantis' EV brand. Given my love for anything Lancia, I wonder what they will come up with.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    edited April 2023 Posts: 4,341
    @GoldenGun , better not get too excited about Lancia's EVs. Rather than going retro, they also seem to eye the futuristic look.

    Lancia Pu+Ra HPE:
    image-da-ypsilon-a-delta-con-pura-hpe-ecco-le-lancia-del-futuro-168156693389571.jpg

    lancia-pu-ra-hpe.webp

    I do see some interesting Stratos lines in the design, though!
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    j_w_pepper wrote: »
    I'm not planning to buy another car until both of our present ones (diesel-powered, one 15, one 7 1/2 years old) break down entirely, and I'm also not sure that it would be a new BEV instead of a used internal-combustion one, as long as they are available.

    But I do think that those Polestars look infinitely better than those VWs, and I'd have to dig deeper into the market to find one I (theoretically) might be ready to buy. Polestar has "pre-owned" cars on its website, and they cost around 40,000 euros for a Polestar 2 with only about 20K kms on the clock, which may be acceptable if it has to be.

    This is entirely without regard to battery capacity/range (my main criterium if I were looking for a BEV), but I don't feel like getting into this until I have to. I probably wrote this before, but I'm not doing the environment a favour dumping our good old diesels on the market for others to use them with a much bigger mileage than we accrue and instead buying a BEV which has its own heavy CO2 footprint just for having been manufactured. It will probably take beyond my reasonably remaining life expectancy to get that even.

    Edit/PS: And I'm certainly not going to buy a car from that psychopath Elon Musk, even if the alternative is Chinese.

    I totally get where you are coming from.
    As a broader point, I generally struggle with finding the right point to get rid of something less efficient or less sustainable for a better alternative. For example in many consumer items I am currently in the process of moving from plastic things I accrued in my early-twenties to more "built-for-life" variants out of more durable and/or sustainable materials (razors, coffee makers, suitcases, that kind of stuff). But what's the point in throwing away a perfectly fine thing of plastic to buy a metal alternative? I still threw away the plastic thing eventhough it was still working.
    Cars are obviously slightly different because of their fuel usage and such, but I think you are totally right in your specific thinking about your usage patterns and some possible next owners usage patterns. The thing doesn't just disappear.

    To bring this back to cars a bit more, I am currently planning a US roadtrip in the summer and for a little while played with the idea of trying out an electric vehicle for that. Problem is, you can hardly rent them and where you can, you a) can't do one-way rentals, which I have to do for my trip plan to work and b) you can only get Teslas and while renting one would only be a marginal gain for the company, I have lost all interest in those cars due to the antics of the company's owner. So I guess I'll go with a combustion engine after all... (and if someone happens to know of a way to rent something like a Hyundai Ioniq or something else for about three weeks, one-way, I'd be happy about a heads-up...)
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    Posts: 2,515
    The First Lotus SUV is here at last, and it's electric........... :)>-

    900hp Lotus Eletre R SUV
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,019
    The First Lotus SUV is here at last
    The last thing the world needs is a Lotus SUV, electric or not. And it is U-G-L-Y.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,341
    I think the interesting variations a designer can get out of a 4-door hatchback SUV are very limited. A Volkswagen looks a bit more generic and the luxury brands a bit more sporty, but that's it. Lotus used to make small, light, fast sports cars. This thing is a heavy battery in an expensive suit. With all the technological craftsmanship required to tickle the best performance out of a reliable combustion engine and clever ideas to save weight thrwon overboard, all E-powered SUVs are more or less interchangeable.

    For buyers it comes down to the believe that an e-Lambo or a e-Lotus is the better car than an e-Kia or an e-Hyundai and that the difference is worth >40 K Euros/Dollars/Pounds. To me, as long as the quality is there and the car is reliable and has physical switches for all the important stuff, I will be happy.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,108
    zebrafish wrote: »
    @GoldenGun , better not get too excited about Lancia's EVs. Rather than going retro, they also seem to eye the futuristic look.

    Lancia Pu+Ra HPE:
    image-da-ypsilon-a-delta-con-pura-hpe-ecco-le-lancia-del-futuro-168156693389571.jpg

    lancia-pu-ra-hpe.webp

    I do see some interesting Stratos lines in the design, though!

    Usually concept cars are more 'space-y' than the ultimate result, and the Stratos lines do get me excited. I just hope they don't go too futuristic...
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    edited April 2023 Posts: 2,515
    j_w_pepper wrote: »
    The First Lotus SUV is here at last
    The last thing the world needs is a Lotus SUV, electric or not. And it is U-G-L-Y.

    Biggest in size and ugliest lotus ever ?
    Hopefully the Lotus ev sports cars are styled better.
    zebrafish wrote: »
    I think the interesting variations a designer can get out of a 4-door hatchback SUV are very limited. A Volkswagen looks a bit more generic and the luxury brands a bit more sporty, but that's it. Lotus used to make small, light, fast sports cars. This thing is a heavy battery in an expensive suit. With all the technological craftsmanship required to tickle the best performance out of a reliable combustion engine and clever ideas to save weight thrwon overboard, all E-powered SUVs are more or less interchangeable.

    For buyers it comes down to the believe that an e-Lambo or a e-Lotus is the better car than an e-Kia or an e-Hyundai and that the difference is worth >40 K Euros/Dollars/Pounds. To me, as long as the quality is there and the car is reliable and has physical switches for all the important stuff, I will be happy.

    The KIA EV6 GT probably is the best looking Electric suv for me.
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    edited April 2023 Posts: 2,515
    Porsche or Ferrari ?
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    edited May 2023 Posts: 2,515
    :-O :-O

    I prefer the Mini....
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,341
    I love the overall shape and reference to the R5. if the production version is not too futuristic in appearance, it could be a strong contender in the small EV segment.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,338
    It’s very cool: I love the new Renault 5 so this is a great move.
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