Ferraris have long been known as striking and powerful machines, typically at the front of the pack in any competition. It should come as no surprise, then, that Ferrari the company is also a leader, extending that same philosophy to how it designs its manufacturing facilities. Late last millennium, the company launched its "Formula Uomo" plan to modernize production in a way that would be good for profitability, good for the environment, and good for the workers. With the opening of their latest new car assembly lines facility and company restaurant, they have reached that goal. The restaurant is a thing of beauty that allows workers a peaceful retreat from the factory. The new assembly lines reduce worker movements so they can work more efficiently, all while catching glimpses of the original plant's red walls through their huge windows. Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and CEO Amedeo Felisa presented these most recent and final pieces in the "Formula Uomo" program, just over ten years after the launch in 1997. It cost the company something like 200 million euro to hire award-winning architects to design and build the new facilities.
The other bold move the company is making is the launch of a new magazine. Produced in conjunction with Condè Nast, this new Ferrari Magazine is a large-format mag that features "a lively and interesting mix of cars, racing culture, fashion and design seen from the point of view of the Ferrari world and the passionate individuals who buy these superb cars." What they said. This quarterly publication will be sent to 30,000 owners worldwide and will only be offered in English. A limited number of subscriptions will be offered to the public as well, at 250 Euro per year. Our CPAs tell us we can write this off. Expect Montezemolo and Schumacher to make regular appearances, as well as other company executives, designers, and even celebrity owners like Nick Mason. The magazine will capture everything Ferrari, with the December issue each year acting as a replacement for the annual yearbook.
The scholars over at Automobile magazine have handed out their "Funky Ergonomics Awards" this year. As expected, BMW's iDrive and 7 Series interior (shown above) remains their favorite pincushion. Rightly so. Their list includes convenience keys that are downright inconvenient, window switches that are out of reach, touchscreens that are dangerously slow to respond, all center-of-the-dashboard mounted instrument clusters, complicated navigation systems, reverse-action manu-matic transmissions, and dimly lit interiors.
While we generally agree with their list, our own ergonomic pet peeves include spinning seat adjusters mounted inaccessibly outboard (yeah, by the doors), cruise control stalks hidden out-of-sight by the wheel itself, and manual modes for old-fashioned "slushbox" automatic trannies. Oh yeah, the list goes on and on...
Employing research that they certainly did not get from AOL Autos, Forbes is at it again with a list of the Top 10 Fastest Fictional Cars. One of the things we find odd about the list is that there are a number of cars included that you can actually buy or make pretty easily, like James Bond's Aston Martin DBS or the General Lee. That, and a lot of cars for sale today are as fast or faster than some fictional ones on the list.
Yet the strangest thing on the list has to be that Lightning McQueen, he of Cars fame, has a 750-horsepower V8 but takes 4.5 seconds to get from 0-to-60. Disney, come on. It's no wonder Lightning had self-esteem issues.
We won't tell you what No. 1 is, but it goes 800-MPH and runs on Energon, which, sadly, Chevron doesn't carry. Click the link for the full rundown, and check out the list of honorable mentions as well, which includes the Gran Torino from Starsky & Hutch and the G-6155 Interceptor from the Spy Hunter video game.
Yes, racing is a sport, even NASCAR. Talented people always make difficult things look easy, but wrestling a vehicle traveling well in excess of one-hundred miles an hour would beat down most mortals in short order. Wired has put up an informative rollover-fest that gives credence to the idea that while us auto writers might be the walking embodiment of a Boston Creme donut, professional racers don't share our gooey center. Driving race cars to win takes dedication on many levels -- time and money are biggies -- and success is unlikely if the mind and body are not as finely tuned as the chassis.
To capture the checkered flag, drivers toil in an environment that's hot and loud, and controls require strong, sure inputs. This ain't your two-finger cruise up the interstate in air-conditioned pleasantness. A regimen of weight training is necessary for the physical performance, while we really like the fact that gaming helps train the eyes and brain to process high speeds. What we don't like is that crunches are apparently necessary. How are we going to be taken seriously in a room full of auto journos if we're all trim and good-drivery?
Renault has been hard at work on the replacement for the current Megane. Following the new Clio, which came out three years ago, the Megane is an important model for the French automaker, designed to face off against volume leaders like the Volkswagen Golf/Rabbit and Ford Focus. French magazine Auto Plus has managed to obtain some undisguised shots of the car, presumably obtained from a Renault employee in exchange for a case of wine, a carton of Gauloise and/or a joke about Americans.
As promised, the new Megane will be substantially more subdued in its styling than the love-it-or-hate-it current model, with its curved upright rear window. The front end borrows heavily from the new Laguna, hinting at a common design language for the company. There's certainly some similarity between the production version and the Megane Coupe Concept unveiled at the Geneva show this year. Although the production Megane will predictably be considerably more conservative than the show car, the three-door appears further differentiated from its five-door stablemate with more sporting lines. See for yourself in the scanned magazine pages in the gallery below. The car looks just about ready to hit the market, so a debut at Renault's home-turf Paris Auto Salon this fall would be a good bet.
Take it from your friendly neighborhood Autoblog, writing about cars is great. But building a car is something else entirely, especially when the car in question is an Italian exotic. That's what Automobile magazine's West Coast editor Jason Cammisa found out when he was invited to Sant'Agata to lend a hand with the assembly of the first production example of the new Gallardo LP560-4, which Lamborghini unveiled at this year's Geneva Motor Show.
The story is featured in the magazine's May issue, and its website is featuring a four-part video series documenting Cammisa's experience.
Magazines and ads are forever tied at the hip. After all, without the latter, the former can't exist. A magazine's front cover is one of the few spots left that's devoid of commercial encroachment -- until now. BMW Canada and Vice magazine have managed to give the 1-series top billing in the April edition. By day, it's just another issue of Vice, but douse the lights and you see some very clever marketing in action. That's because the mag has a special glow-in-the-dark treatment that turns the cover into a full-page ad for the BMW 1-series. As advertising stunts go, it's brilliant. Here's a front-page ad that's both unobtrusive (on newsstands, you just see the standard cover) and highly effective, since people are likely to talk about it and show it to friends. It couldn't have come cheap, either, as the covers had to be shuttled between two facilities during the manufacturing process to get the glowy look. No matter. Good ads get noticed and generate buzz. Mission accomplished.
Back in the day, they loved their unmitigated dangerousness. Don't want exciteable little Muffy getting all nutso and chewing the seat foam? Stick him in his very own doggy bag and make his stinky little backside ride on the running board. Cut one of those shrinking yellow lights too close, and you'll let all the jelly filling out of your canine friend with this rig, but the dog would probably love this style of travel. The only modern car you could attempt this stunt with would be a New Beetle, though there's plenty of trucks with running boards. What's a better combo than a man and his truck, with his dog in a bag outside?
If you're a die-hard fan of Italian supercars, you've probably already depleted your drool reserves on the spy shots of Lamborghini's new Gallardo LP550 we brought you earlier. Well, start salivating again, because Italian magazine Quattroruote has spilled the beans. Members of the Italian-language enthusiast forum Autopareri.com have scanned the images in the magazine, and we've added them to the spy shot gallery below.
The images in the magazine seem pretty spot-on, and substantiate our earlier report based on the spy shots: a more pronounced front air dam, a revised rear grille and quad tailpipes. This is just an appetizer – you can count on a whole mess of photos when Lamborghini pulls back the veil on its latest Raging Bull.
Since last summer, rumors have swirled in Australia regarding a potential "flagship" HSV GTSR. The original scuttlebutt had GM's Aussie performance division dropping the Corvette Z06's LS7 V8 into one of its fully-tricked, Commodore-based sedans. That never panned out. In the interim, we've seen the introduction of the blown, 620-horsepower, 6.2-liter LS9 V8 in the Corvette ZR1, as well as its less-caffeinated brother, the 550-horsepower LSA, in the Cadillac CTS-V. As such, the time is nigh to commence Round 2 of the HSV GTSR rumormongering. Australia's Motor magazine (no website? come on, guys) steps up to the plate with its March 2008 issue cover shot, a Photoshop of an HSV sedan sporting the ZR1's hood window, with a claim that the LS9 is headed Down Under. Whether the rumor's even remotely valid is anyone's guess, and it's likely to go on for months. You see, something like the mythical GTSR would be a pretty major reveal, worthy of a big stage like the Sydney Motor Show. That doesn't take place until October, so there's plenty of time for this one to get whipped into a frenzy.
