On the Road

Tags: mini convertible left-hand right-hand drive

In this edition, I continue my obsession with backsides. Automobile ones anyway.

In a shock move, BMW’s head of design Chris Bangle has left BMW to pursue things “outside of the automobile industry.” Given I discussed him in my previous post I thought it appropriate to bring it up here too.

I guess it’s a shock move to the automotive world because most of the people involved in it are mad about cars, which explains their choice of employment.

It goes without saying this also includes the automotive press, like yours truly, but then again cars are merely the center of a universe, not the universe.

It’s a surprise because automobile designers usually stay within the industry – Bangle himself joined BMW in 1992 after vacating his post at Fiat. But it’s not unknown for them to branch out into other things either.

The legendary Giorgetto Giugaro (who designed the DeLorean DMC-12 aka Doctor Emmett Brown’s time machine) went on to industrial design and penned cameras and keyboards.

Bangle’s biggest steps, and biggest uproars, were probably the introduction of the 7 Series luxury sedan and Z4 sports car in 2002. His use of flame surfacing (obvious concave or convex shapes in the sheet metal) as a new design direction was met with both extreme applause and disgust though as usual it was the nay-sayers that roared the loudest, but he never seemed to tired of defending his design choices either.

I admit that the infamous ‘Bangle Butt’ didn’t agree with me at first too. But getting the opportunity to talk to him in person at a design workshop here a year or so ago was a big step towards understanding what his intentions were.

One was the understanding of how car design goes through alternate cycles of revolution and evolution. The first cars were the revolution and now we’re seeing the fruits of evolution in the sleek looking new Z4 and 7 Series.

What struck me most though, was how his points of reference were always from outside the automobile industry – talking about what influenced him most in the design of new cars he used examples ranging from the spectacles he wore to things like chairs and can openers. His main aim, he said, was to “make human, organic shapes” that everyone could appreciate.

So while other car designers saw the big picture, it seemed he always saw the BIG picture. Plus looking like a messiah always helps:

So is Chris Bangle the mad genius who brought BMW’s design to greater heights or just mad?

That’s still up to you to decide but in my eyes it’s the former.

Next up: We talk about something other than butts.

Tags: 7 Series, BMW, Chris Bangle, design, Z4

Spending five days with a Lexus GS 450h over the Lunar New Year period got me thinking: Why aren’t all cars built like this?

The ‘h’ in the car’s name means it’s a hybrid, so it has both a petrol engine and an electric motor, and can run on any combination of the two power sources.

Nothing new about that, but what the GS 450h brings to the table is serious performance. We’re talking about a 0-100kmh time of 5.9 seconds, quick enough to make Maserati and Porsche drivers glance nervously in their mirrors.

Along with this speed comes extreme quietness. And I really do mean complete silence.

When the car’s at a standstill the engine shuts off completely, yet the air-con continues to work on the electricity that the hybrid system stores while you were braking to a halt.

It runs for up to 20 minutes or so too, so you can wait in cool comfort while not using a single millilitre of fuel.

In case you’re wondering, a large car uses around two litres of fuel an hour just idling – that works out to more than four cents a minute, and what about the extra emissions and wear and tear?

Over 900km or so of driving, the GS 450h returned an average fuel consumption figure of 8.3 litres/100km (12.0 km/litre). That’s amazing for a 3.5-litre car, especially given how much time I was spending enjoying its searing acceleration.

Hybrids make a huge amount of sense in Singapore, given our stop-start traffic and tropical weather. The sooner other luxury brands follow Lexus’ lead, the better.

The best part? The GS 450h lists for $185,000, or only $14,000 more than the slower, noisier and altogether less appealing GS 300. It’s a no-brainer.

Tags: gs 450h, hybrid, lexus