Fiat and Gucci Announce the ‘500 by Gucci’: a New Italian Design Icon

2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, and also the 90th anniversary of the famous Italian fashion label, Gucci. So in order to commemorate this, Guccia and Fiat have worked together and created a special edition 500 which represents a 'combination of craftsmanship and style'.

The Gucci Fiat 500 comes with black and white glossy pear glass body colours, various chromed details, unique alloys, Gucci's signature green-red-green stripe along with Gucci's signature on the hatchback and doorpost.
The green-red-green stripes also appear at the interior on the seats, gear shifter, key cover and carpets, plus the Gucci Fiat 500 comes with two-toned seats in Frau leather, chic embroidery and glossy and satin chromes.

Automotive Family Tree

Andy Harris from TooManyCars.info has updated (a few times) his fantastic Automotive Family Tree map of who owns the car companies.

Welcome to version 3.2 of the “Family Tree” style diagram of who owns who (or is it whom) in the automotive world. In this version of the “Family Tree”, I’ve added more categories: Heavy Trucks and Chinese made automobiles. The diagram now shows 130 different vehicle manufactures from US, Europe, India, Asia, Russia and China. I’ve read that there is more than 80 different vehicle manufactures in China. I made the decision not to list all of them, but the ones I included are among the top 40 manufactures in the world.

Piaggio's Vespa to run on Indian roads again

Italian vehicle maker Piaggio on Thursday said it plans to invest 30 million Euro ($38 million) in a new scooter plant and re-introduce the iconic Vespa scooter in the Indian market by early 2012.

"We plan to invest 30 million Euro to set up a manufacturing plant for Vespa scooter brand in India,"

said Ravi Chopra, chairman of the Piaggio's Indian subsidiary, Piaggio Vehicles Pvt Ltd, on the sidelines of an automobile conference.

"We will launch the Vespa scooter by the end of 2011 or early 2012," he added. The new manufacturing facility will come up in Baramati, Maharashtra, and have a production capacity of 150,000 units per annum.

Peugeot develops world's first diesel, electric hybrid

Peugeot says that in launching what it is calling the world’s first diesel full hybrid vehicle — the 3008 HYbrid 4 crossover— next spring, the French automaker will be writing a new chapter in motoring history.
The combination of a fuel-efficient, 163-horsepower 2.0-litre HDi diesel engine and a 37-hp electric motor is the optimal combination for a hybrid vehicle, says Peugeot — the 3008 HYbrid 4’s diesel engine providing European Combined Drive Cycle fuel consumption of 3.8 litres per 100 kilometres and CO2 emissions of 99 grams per km.
The car gets the power due to a 2.0-liter 163 horsepower HDi diesel, which is accompanied with a 37 peak horsepower electric motor as well as 27 constant. Due to such characteristics, the car is efficient as well as powerful.

The 3008 HYbrid 4 is equipped with the Start-Stop technology which is developed by Peugeot.

To manage the available performance, a control selector mounted on the centre console enables the driver to choose between four different operating modes — Auto, ZEV, 4WD and Sport.

Ferrari unveils new logo for 2011

Ferrari has unveiled a new logo that will feature on all its team and car branding from the start of next season.

The red-and-white design will become the Maranello-team's official racing logo from January 1, and comes on the back of the controversy over the bar code design that the outfit had used up until the early part of this season. Given Formula One's ban on tobacco advertising, angry lobbyists claimed the barcode was too closely associated with Marlboro cigarettes, the primary brand of sponsors Philip Morris.

Brand Profile: Mazda

The Japanese Mazda was founded in 1920 by  Matsuda Jyujiro, initially under the name of Toyo Cork Kogyo Co. In 1927 the brand changed its name to Toyo Kogyo Co.  Slowly they diversifying its production and manufacture first motorcycle and, later, small tricycles for urban freight transport and in 1931 began to produce Mazdago, a three-wheeled wagon.

The word Mazda is a blend of the name of the brand's founder, Matsuda Jyujiro ("tsu" in Japanese is pronounced "Z") and the Assyrian god Mazda.

Ahura Mazda is the abstract and transcendant god of Zoroastrianism. Ahura is the adversary of Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian representation of evil. Ahura has no image and cannot be represented in any form . Ahura Mazda, derived from the Old Persian Aura-Mazda ("Aura" - Lord, "Mazda" - Wisdom) symbolizes the supreme deity of Zoroastrian and Mazdean religions.
Ahura Mazda is refered to as Ormazd in modern Persian.


During World War II the brand started to produce weapons for the Japanese army, leaving the Type 99 rifle widely known.  Mazda's first vehicle to be produced was the sporty Mazda R360 coupe launched in 1960, followed by the Mazda Carol in 1962.

Like other Japanese brands, Mazda began its expansion in the late sixties. With Carol and Family models fully consolidated in the domestic market, the company began exporting in 1967 the first units to Europe, and three years after the United States.

Logo
The brand logo has changed a lot. The latter, which represents two wings, dating from 1997. Coincidence or not, 3,500 years ago, the symbol of Mazda, the only god of the Assyrian religion, or Zoroastrianism, also were two wings.

Current Logo: Capturing the spirit of Mazda, the stylised “M” evokes an image of wings in flight and symbolises the Mazda’s flight toward the future. The “V” in the centre of the “M” spreads out like an opening fan, representing the creativity, vitalty, flexibilty and passion that is Mazda. The symbol as a whole expresses the sharp, solid feeling that Mazda will be seeking in all of its products. The dynamic circle symbolises our readiness to spread our wings as we enter the 21st century.

Solar plane: around the world without fuel & with zero emissions

The prototype of a solar-powered plane, the size of an Airbus and the weight of a mid-sized car, destined for a record round-the-world journey has made its first trip across a runway. The plane covered at least 2km at speeds of up to 5 knots on the landing strip in Switzerland. This test run saw the Solar Impulse plane outside its hangar for the first time, with tests of its motors and computer. As wide as a jumbo jet but weighing just 1,500 kg, the plane's final version will attempt to cross the Atlantic in 2012.

Solar Impulse has the wingspan of a Jumbo Jet but the weight of a small car.  However one thing that this  solar plane cannot handle is bad weather. Because the solar panels are needed for day flying and for charging the 400-kilogram lithium batteries that power the plane by night, it relies on sunshine.


Trivia: Adventurer Bertrand Piccard(co-founder) in 1999 co-piloted the first round-the-globe non-stop balloon flight.

LoGO TaLe: Citroen double arrow

André Citroën's inspiration was the wooden gears with spiral teeth, produced by a Polish inventor and business partner's.thus the reason behind the logo. Citroen brand is stylized and two teeth "cut" on the clutch.This logo was derived from the herringbone gear shift. His first industrial adventure was a small gear cutting business called 'Engrenages Citroen' in Fauburg St Denis when he introduced the 'logo' for his company as two double helical 'chevrons'. This emblem survived all his other subsequent activities and is still the internationally recognisable double chevron logo of Citroen cars. 
In 1919, Company start production of cars, the first model is Type A, we observed first logo Citroen, octagonal with arrows logo on a blue background with silver or gold, on top of the radiator. After been many ups and downs, In 2009, new logo was developed by design firm Landor. Citroen change appearance. Arrows (chevroanele) out in relief, gained strength. Writing Citroen keeps its traditional red color, as a bridge between history and future.

Trivia : Citroen  gears found their way into most French cars and to such diverse avenues as the steering system for the 'Titanic' (Citroen products were used on the Titanic)

Acura's new TVC which shows the mechanical soul that drives its machines

Hybrid's History from Lexus

Lexus launched a new campaign that showcases its hybrid vehicle line and reminds company's five-year history of putting hybrids on the road.

Air New Zealand staff have nothing to hide

To convey their message that they have nothing to hide from its customer ( esp about the pricing), Air New Zealand has run this ad campaign


Another video, showing the making of this campaign

I am Back

G R Gopinath, is all set to launch a door-to-door international freight and cargo service with effect from 27 May. The freight carrier, 'Deccan 360, which will start with an A310 freighter ( see the above picture), will add two more and will operate on its own fleet of aircraft.

All the best Sir...

Company History 9: American Airlines

In 1926, Charles A. Lindbergh was the chief pilot of Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which was based at an airfield in Forest Park. Soon Robertson Aircraft Corporation and about 85 other small airline companies were consolidated in 1929 and 1930 into the Aviation Corporation, which eventually formed American Airways, the immediate predecessor of today’s American Airlines. It was in 1934 that the company reorganized American Airways and became American Airlines, Inc. Not long after, American developed an air traffic control system that would later be used by all airlines and administered by the U.S. government. The company also introduced the first domestic scheduled U.S. freight service in 1944.

On April 15, 1926, Charles Lindbergh flew the first leg of the first round trip Chicago to St. Louis airmail flight. Flying the airmail was a dangerous business and Lindbergh had to jump from more than one aircraft because of weather or mechanical difficulties. This flight is considered to have been first start of American Airlines’ long history.

Prehistory of Michelin

The present Michelin Company dates back to 1829 when Édouard Daubrée marries a Scott, Elizabeth Pugh Barker niece of the scientist Charles Macintosh, who discovered the solubility of rubber in benzene.
The Daubrées family had created their fortune in trade – notably the sugar trade, which collapsed during the Napoleonic Wars with the crippling blockade against French shipping. He was soon joined by Aristide Barbier, a distant cousin and also a close friend.
Whatever else she brought to the marriage as dowry, Elizabeth Daubrée apparently was the niece – at any rate she had grown up in the shadow – of Charles Macintosh, the Scot who made rubber work for him at a time (1823) when inventors and entrepreneurs were looking for ways to manipulate the strange substance, and then to find practical uses for it. A little later, the miraculous process known as vulcanization – essentially the application of heat and sulphur to transform crude rubber into something at once stronger and more pliable – created an industry.
A decade and a half before this process was tried and proved successful, Macintosh had begun to strip off slices of crude rubber – hardened latex – to dissolve it in low-boiling naphtha, encasing it between layers of fabric to produce waterproof clothing material. By 1824 he was running a company bearing his name to make and sell his patented rainwear. Still later, his genial creation would be known universally as the ‘mackintosh’.

It was a rough moment in the Industrial Revolution. There was a race to be the first to file a patent, another race to be the first to exploit new and potentially profitable manufacturing processes. In 1839 Charles Goodyear first stumbled upon the vulcanization process that was to make all the difference, yet he had not had the business sense to nail down his patent in time. He even thought he could keep the discovery to himself while he negotiated its sale, letting samples get out of his hands, at which point a clever Englishman, Thomas Hancock, unravelled his secret by sniffing out the sulphur in it – and filed his own patent for vulcanization a year ahead of Goodyear’s (in 1843, to be precise). Goodyear fought back, threatening legal action if Europeans violated his rights. French rubber-makers who ignored Goodyear’s moral priority were taken to court, their defence led by none other than Aristide Barbier – armed with his legal background – and they won – in France at least; the year was 1854.

The original Barbier–Daubrée combination worked like a charm until the end, but the end always comes. They even died in harmony – Aristide Barbier in 1863 and Edouard Daubrée just a year later, having ensured the succession as best they could – given that Daubrée left two sons and widower Barbier two daughters. Of the Daubrée sons the elder, Ernest, already 34 years old at his father’s death, seemed to give the better guarantee that he could handle the succession. But now there was – or could be – a male pretender on the Barbier side. During the early years of the Clermont-Ferrand adventure Aristide’s daughters Emilie and Adèle had lived in Paris, raised by the sister of their long-departed mother. The story goes that when they were of the age to marry, the daughters had access to the best drawing rooms. But it was in Clermont-Ferrand that Aristide eventually found a man for Emilie, who by then was 24 years old. The prospective husband, a recent widower, son of a property lawyer, was himself a lawyer. And it was still further away from Paris – in Luz, a spa in the Pyrenees frequented by Aristide Barbier in his late and prosperous years – that his second daughter Adèle (then a ripe 21) was first seen in the company of a gentleman named Jules Michelin (a dozen years her senior).


Text taken from ( The Michelin Men - Driving an Empire, by I.B. Tauris)

TATA's creativeness - nano Advertising

TATA is looking at unconventional mediums like web search, viral marketing and innovative public relations-driven campaigns, where the news in brief is called ‘Nano news’ in TOI, Navbharat times etc and television advertisement breaks are called "Nano breaks" (I hav seen it during TC 2009 Campus telecast).

Tata Nano’s print campaign was unveiled. Unlike most car launches, this one will not be supported by a TV campaign.

Other initiatives include online games, merchandise and accessories like Nano branded T-shirts, key chains, teddy bears and watches.

On the day of the launch, the famous RK Laxman's common man was seen rushing towards a Nano. TATA is also encashing its other business through nano like bookings n displays of nano are at Croma, Westside etc.

People's cars

FORD MODEL T

1908-1927 The Model T Ford started out in 1908 at a $850 price point. However, the beauty of the Model T was not just the car but also the process, the moving assembly line was perfected by Henry Ford based on the four principles of accuracy, continuity, system and speed. It sparked a social revolution in Yankeeland. Fords workers were among the best paid because they produced the most, the profits of FoMoCo (popular slang for Ford Motor Company) went through the roof.

AUSTIN SEVEN

1922-1939 What the Model T did for the US, the Austin 7 did for the UK. Made by the Austin Motor Company from 1922 to 1939, the Austin 7 was considerably smaller and more compact than the Ford Model-T. It was lighter, less than half the Model Ts weight to be specific at 360 kg. While giving it adequate performance was a 747cc engine with a modest 10hp.

FIAT 500 TOPOLINO

1936-1955 Designed by the great Dante Giacosa, Fiat 500 Topolino (Mickey Mouse in Italian) that was introduced in 1936, seemed a scaled down version of a large car but so finely detailed were its lines and proportions that it went on to attain instant success. The 500 was produced in three different variants until 1955 with minor mechanical and cosmetic changes.

VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE

1938-1998 Unveiled in 1938, the Volkswagen Beetle was the outcome of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitlers vision to give the German masses a really affordable and easy-to-run car, in which a family of five could travel easily, even over tough mountainous roads. The job was handed over to Ferdinand Porsche, who developed a small family car in 1936 which went into production in 1938. The Volkswagen Beetles success was largely credited to its cuddly and endearing appeal and the engineering tour de force of Ferdinand Porsche.

CITROEN 2CV

1948-1990 The 2CV was the original Toute Petite Voiture (thats French for Very Small Car) much akin to Nano. The idea for 2CV came from leader-thinker and Citroen-Michelin boss Pierre Boulanger. Within months of its 1949 launch, the waiting list grew to be three years long. At that time, second hand 2CVs demanded a greater premium than new ones, only because they would be delivered sooner. With a 375cc air-cooled opposed-twin cylinder engine and a very pliant and innovative suspension, the car was capable of a true speed of about 60 km/h while delivering a fuel efficiency of 33 kmpl. This car was very actively being considered for manufacture in India in the early 1980s by none other than Escorts but the government of India did not want to see any competition to Maruti Udyog and denied Escorts the permission to manufacture it.

AUSTIN MINI

1959-2000 The original Mini is said to be Britains Beetle by many thanks to its mass appeal. Under the fiercely passionate and iron fisted control of its designer, Sir Alec Issigonis, some may even think that the process was similar to Ferdinand Porsches quest for the German peoples car. The car had its genesis in the 1956 Suez Canal petroleum crisis, which gave Issigonis the idea to make a small car that was not only fuel efficient, but also packed the maximum interior space in the minimum possible road space.

MARUTI 800

1988-PRESENT Europe and America have had their share of peoples cars in the form of the Ford Model T, VW Beetle, Austin Seven, just to name a fewcars which pretty much changed the face of the automobile industry in their day. So it might be difficult for some to understand how the cute little Maruti 800 fits into the same league as these, considering that it was just a rehashed Japanese Kei (ultra-compact) car built for the Indian market. But what the Model T and the Beetle did for the world when they were introduced was just what the 800 did for India when Maruti launched it back in 1983. In an era of cars like the Premier Padmini and the HM Ambassador, which embodied a socialist approach to making automobiles just as their names would suggest, the Maruti 800 was a revelation.

TATA Nano

A much has been talked about.

Company History 7: BMW- Ultimate Driving Machine

It was founded by Karl Friedrich Rapp and Gustav Otto after the merger of two manufacturers of airplane engines in the city of Munich: a Rapp-Motorenwerke and Gustav Otto Flugmaschinfabrik. The Rapp-engine works themselves began in 1913 at Munich, started to build aircraft engines for Austria in anticipation of World War I. Rapp-Motorenwerke's top customer was Franz Josef Popp, general inspector of Emperor Franz Josef's army. Popp hired Max Friz, an aircraft engine designer from Austro-Daimler; together in Munich they established Bayerische Motoren Werke based on the engineering ideas of Rapp.
The First World War brought rapid growth to the company, which soon built large facilities to the east of the former airfield of Oberwiesenfeld in Munich. Until 1918, supplied engines for military aircraft. However the twist in the tale came in with the Treaty of Versailles, signed after the World War I, when Germany was banned to manufacture aircraft engines for five years. BMW then began to provide four-cylinder engines for trucks and boats.

The company's interests in motorcycle manufacture developed rapidly in the early 1920s. The first model, the R32, consisted of a flat twin engine and drive shaft housed in a double-tube frame, with valves in an inverted arrangement to keep the oil clean. Designed by engineer Max Fritz, bike debuted in the salons of Paris and Berlin. This model had the basic characteristics of future bike brand: of 2 cylinder boxer engine and transmission secondary axle card.
Franz-Josef Popp was the first Director General and CEO of BMW.













Key Dates:

1913: Inventor Karl Rapp opens an aircraft design shop.
1917: Rapp's original business leads to the formation of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, under the direction of Franz Josef Popp and Max Friz.
1918: First BMW aircraft engine is built.
1929: First BMW car is built.

Trivia: The nomenclature
BMW uses 3 numeric digits followed by one or two letters to identify their models. The first number is the number of cars. The next two numbers represent the engine displacement in liters multiplied by 10. The letters mean: d = diesel, petrol = i; x = all wheel drive, long wheel base l = c = par. For example, the model 760il car is a series of 7, moved to the 6.0l engine with petrol.