Modern Cars 2011: August 2010

Feel the fire: Ferrari 458 Italia

Since I was a child, I do know that Ferrari is the hottest car on planet! However I thought the word “hot” was used literally until now. The new 458 Italia is a great replacement of F430. It is offering a new experience for Ferrari drivers. From steering wheel to elastic diffusers under the front bumpers, 458 Italia is full of surprises.

Like every Ferrari, 458 Italia is offering something very special. This hot can burn you down! Not literally. Unfortunately 458 Italia has some issues with fire and nearly ten of them caught fire. I know that Ferrari can burn you but I never thought it will be burn you like a meat inside a hamburger. Actually this is really weird, nowadays cars supposed to burn you with driving pleasure not with fire.

Current condition of 458 Italia reminded me a slogan from an advertisement campaign which will fit really well. Feel the Fire (Burger King)!

I don’t think anything would fit better than this to Ferrari 458 Italia. Actually 458 is a proper supercar, unlike other brand it is giving you everything. Passions, love, excitement and heat, lots of heat! This is the definition of a supercar. You have to feel the fire!

Pictures' Copyrights

Worldcarfans, Ferrari and Telegraph

ford escape hybrid pictures

ford escape hybrid

ford escape hybrid front

ford escape hybrid

ford escape hybrid image

ford escape hybrid

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ford escape hybrid cars

ford escape hybrid

For 2010, Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner add a host of new features that improve safety and make driving more convenient. Escape and Mariner also become two of the first Ford Motor
Company vehicles to feature SYNC® with Traffic, Directions and Information – helping reduce distractions while accessing important route and traffic information.

Alfa Giulietta: Hard to pronounce but worth to drive!

I really don’t like to talk about test drive experience of mine. It is a limited conversation, I cannot discuss about other subject that easily. And also you can drive the car and have your own opinion.

However I am breaking this principle for Alfa Romeo Giulietta. This new Alfa Romeo is a replacement of 147. And it is nearly impossible to pronounce it properly. Nissan Qashqai was the hardest brand to be pronounced but Giulietta replaced its place :)

This new Alfa Romeo is a competitor for VW Golf, Ford Focus, Audi A3, BMW 1 Series, Mercedes A Class, Seat Leon. But it is totally different its competitors. I do know that you will be thinking, this is an Alfa and it will definitely break down. Hopefully that’s old story, Alfa is not a catastrophe anymore.

Giulietta is a new chapter for Alfa Romeo, it is not cheaply built. You can feel the renaissance! And Alfa’s desire to erase its bad reputation. Hopefully it is really good car. It is not a luxury like an Audi A3 but it drives much better than an A3! The DNA button next to gear lever, is a civilized version of Ferrari’s manettino. You can choose between Dynamic, Normal and All Weather. And magic happens with Dynamic!

The magic happens inside the corner, mostly front wheel drive cars have very high tendency to under steer and hit to tree directly. This is very usual and expected behaviour from ridiculous front wheel technology. And you don’t push throttle inside a corner but with Dynamic mode, you can push inside the corner with Giulietta.

I don’t care about other things, I don’t care whether it has xenon headlights or park sensors. The engine, electronic and drive train have a great harmony and you don’t pay attention to the rest. Giulietta is one of the most enjoying car I have driven for long time. Even though it has four doors but you never feel that you are driving a family hatchback!

I would like to thank you Richard Aucock for the beautiful Giulietta photo :)

http://www.richardaucock.com/

Pictures' Copyrights

Alfa Romeo and Richard Aucock

Plastic dreams: SLS

The movie inception reminded me the ugly truth of dream and reality. When we dream of something, we don’t dream of something dull, ugly or plastic. Therefore we don’t want to have these things in our real life also. Especially when you dream of cars, you don’t dream of dull, ugly, slow and plastic. Unfortunately car companies don’t like to create dream which avoid these facts!

Especially the Mercedes, a few days ago I saw the SLS AMG. The real one! And I felt nothing; I didn’t feel the same excitement when I saw the Bentley Arnage. SLS is just a contemporary refurbishment of 1950s Gullwing model with park sensors. It was not something special! Sure, it has many new technologies, very fast and looks okay.

The main reason for my disappointment is the addiction of plastic. Unfortunately SLS AMG has couple of cheap plastic parts inside the car. This time Mercedes was cleaver and they hide those plastics in goods places. But when you pay huge amount of money for a car, you don’t want to find hidden plastic parts. SLS AMG has the cheap feeling plastic parts for the seat adjustments. The button which moves the seat to desired position is made by plastic and from very cheap one. Even the CL has better looking metal buttons for this thing. I do know that SLS AMG is focused on weight saving but they could have used carbon fibre instead of plastic. I think Mercedes thought, nobody will ever bothered with those plastics and let’s ignore the carbon fibre. And they transformed a perfect dream into plastic reality.

Mercedes can say; Ferrari and Lamborghini have plastic parts. But they are Ferrari and Lamborghini. They don’t produce diesel powered estate cars! Therefore, Mercedes should be much much better than those cars. Because, they are real dreams and in those dreams people might ignore the material quality.

And I have never seen a footstep made from soft plastic and looks terribly cheap in any other car! Even the Mercedes G Class offers blue lighted chrome Mercedes foot step.

Sex Sells: Ferrari

Unfortunately I could not write anything on my blog on Friday due to 12 hours of travel from UK to Turkey. Adverse effects of low cost airlines :)

Today I found a reason to buy an iPhone! I am sure that you will agree with me on this. Today my friend found a Ferrari application on iTunes for iPhone. It is not a driving simulation or to create your own Ferrari or race for less fuel. This application is bringing the pure pleasure of Ferrari!

You can drive the Ferrari you wish. You won’t be driving around a circuit or in a road. You will be seeing only rev meter and speedometer and real Ferrari sound. I am not kidding, there six Ferrari models are available (458, F430 Scuderia, F430 Cabrio, 612, 599 and California). All these each models has its unique instrument panel and you can speed up either with in manual mode or in automatic mode. You can rev up to limiter and feel the real Ferrari pleasure.

Unlike any car game, it is not very easy to see the maximum speed. You have to push really hard to see. Especially with 458, you can see 325kph but you should know how to push the gas pedal! And each model is offering its own engine sound, that’s really unbelievable, I am sure that Ferrari spent a lot of time to develop this application with appropriate engine sounds.

And also you can test your ability to differentiate engine noise! You really don’t need to have a degree on music, you need the passion! Also there is a cheating function or a small bug. During the test, if you hold the gap between car models times is not counting!

This is the best iPhone application I have ever tried. I hope that they will be offering higher image quality but even this is enough to push adrenaline into your blood :)

Do you want fake engine noise for your car ?

Since the hybrid phenomenon started a question popped up in my brain. The hybrid cars have the capability to drive through electric motor thanks to batteries. And also they are very silent, efficient and you know the rest. Hybrids are the tree huggers!

But there was a minor detail many people ignored! The electric engines are too silent, that’s not something bad but they too silent for pedestrians. You won’t notice this until a hybrid was one meter away to hit you.

The ultra silent hybrids emerged a new problem of car sound. Because, many of us understand that a car is approaching to us by hearing the engine noise. And hybrids do not have an engine noise while they are using the electric motor. So, we will not hear anything and hybrid might crash to us. I think there are some incidents have happened.

Today Toyota announced that, they will be coupling hybrid vehicles with virtual engine noise! I have never seen more ridiculous that this. A car is making faking noise !?! I hope they will be working with game companies. I cannot imagine this hilarious condition of automotive business. They are trying to find ways to make fake engine noise. I am sure some tuning companies will remap the noise and your Toyota Prius can sound like a Ferrari :)

I am sure some ladies are reading this blog, and I would like provide a different explanation. Hybrids situation is like making fake noises for your high heels and help other people to realize that you are approaching. It is that simple :)