Audi RS Q3 Concept
Audi just took the wraps off this brand new concept at the Beijing Auto Show in China. The theme for the vehicle is “thrilling dynamic performance”. The styling certainly has me thrilled, but 360hp, while nothing to sneeze at, isn’t exactly on par with, say, the 420hp pumped out by the Q3′s VAG stablemate Porsche Cayenne GTS we looked at last week.
Yet, the niceties don’t begin an end with horsepower, oh no, you also get a 7-speed tiptronic gearbox, full time Quattro all-wheel-drive and a top speed of 265kph with a zero to 100kph time of 5.2 seconds. Inside the Q3 you can expect all kinds of branded accoutrement and gobs of gorgeous black leather.
$TBD
Visit audi.com for more details as they slither out.
BIEGERT and FUNK QlockTwo W Watch with Words
Speaking of watches, how about one for those of us that struggle with the abstract notion of quickly reading and deciphering two different sets of hands set against a circular structure of well placed numbers? Now, I will readily admit, I’m actually quite good at it now, but as a younger man it actually filled me with a subset of angst when asked the time while I was clearly wearing a watch. I would worry that the asker was somehow dissatisfied with the speed of my response, indicating that I was, well, slow. No more! No more, I say! All you have to do now, my angst ridden watch wearers, is read. You can do that, can’t you?
QLOCKTWO W, case in natural brushed stainless steel or black, 35 x 35 x 7mm, black leather or natural rubber strap, calendar day and second display, LED technology. Available from autumn 2012.
$TBD – coming this autumn.
Check it out at qlocktwo.com
The Sony Smart Watch
The smarter way to, well, not drop your phone I guess. It would be neat if it had some sort of voice recognition feature, that way we could wear our watches backwards like it was the 90′s and talk in to our wrists like we were CIA agents, but I digress, deeply. Where were we? Oh right, the watch – I was still thinking about being a CIA agent – anyway, yes, the watch will feature full support for apps from Google’s Play store and will allow you to control your Android phone via tailored apps that function and support the watch. You’ll be able to send tweets, control your tunes, update Facebook and send tweets all from a screen with less resolution and far less real estate than your Android phone!
$149.99
Available from the Sony Store Online.
The Sound Sofa
Concerned about where to put your rear speakers? Worried about sound coverage being optimal? Have you considered putting the speakers in your sofa? I’ll bet you hadn’t up until now. CSL-Sofas out of the UK has you covered with their latest sofa design, the sound sofa. No word on airplay capability, but there is bluetooth and an iPod dock – so you’re covered.
$1600 Approx.
Check out the whole range at csl-sofas.co.uk
2013 SRT Viper
She’s baaaack! And boy oh boy, does she look pissed! It wasn’t so long ago that most purists were writing off the Viper as dead, not worth more than a new pair of snake skin boots. If it wasn’t for the dedication of the SRT folks the Viper would’ve been lost to annals of history as the car that, well, tried to compete with the Corvette.
Ralph Gilles, the president and CEO of Chrysler’s Street and Racing Technology team — or SRT — said uncertainty about the Viper’s future was “gut-wrenching.” The company decided to revive the Viper as the recession ceded and sales began to stabilize. Chrysler turned its first annual profit since 1997 last year.
“The launch of the 2013 Viper proves that we simply would not let the performance icon of the Chrysler Group die,” Gilles said in a statement.
The Viper is built by hand at a plant in Detroit. The company sold just 1,172 Vipers in 2007, the year before the recession began. They cost about $90,000 then, and will likely hit $100,000 when they go on sale later this year.
$100,000 approx.
Check it out at drivesrt.com
2013 Porsche Cayenne GTS Unveiled
The Porsche Cayenne GTS is designed to be the median between the S model and the Turbo model, but the underpinnings are still based on the basic S model. On the surface you may think all you’re getting is a glorified Cayenne S with the GTS, as it has significant performance and visual upgrades over the standard Cayenne S model. These upgrades include tweaks to the engine to juice out some extra power and suspension modifications to keep you glued to the road during hard manoeuvres.
In addition to performance mods, the Cayenne GTS also features some visual and interior upgrades.
A 420-hp V8 based on the Cayenne S engine is underneath the hood, mated to an 8-speed Tiptronic S transmission with integrated start/stop function, propelling the GTS from zero to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds. Top track speed is 261 km/h. In a nutshell, it’s fast – for an SUV.
The stiffer chassis is equipped with Porsche’s Active Suspension Management, air suspension and a 20-mm lower ride height than the standard S model for a bit more street-cred.
$TBD
Check it out at Porsche.com
BMW i8 Spyder Concept
Electric cars – how we love you, and oh, how we’re not prepared to pay for you and, oh, how our grids aren’t ready for you, and oh, oh, oh, are we going to be surprised when you cost as much as gasoline. We’ll be pleased with a much higher social prestige though, that’s for certain.
It’s easy to see how capitalism is naturally placing the electric car this time around, especially with a beast like the i8 on display.
Electric-whizz-bang future machines like this are going to become the fashion product first, supply will be short, demand will be high and only the best and brightest need apply. Maybe that should be best and elitest? At any rate, that’s how the world is shaping this chance at a new beginning. That’s how the marketing executives will “make it work”, simply by treating us like the idiots we are. All you really have to do these days is treat your product like a premium item and the plebs will fall in line. It’s the Apple ethos, or what the rest of the world has learned from Apple, regardless of the veracity.
You can’t have one, but you want one. All the cool kids have one. “You’re using gasoline? Pfft! What are you, trying to kill the environment? See ya later lamo!” It’ll be like a dagger through your heart.
Oh, believe me, it’s coming.
The real reason Apple has succeeded so mightily is actually down to the fact that they gave consumers what they wanted at exactly the right time. That’s not going to happen with electric cars. You will be gouged. Cajoled and ridiculed.
On the bright side, we get futuristic looking cars with light-up-parts and what-not to look at!
The true advances will be made while the marketing folks aren’t really paying attention. The heads up displays, the electronic aids, the battery design, those are all needed by the marketing folk to ramp up their product’s awesomeness, so they stay – but they also move us forward, they move humanity forward. That’s how capitalism succeeds, when the men who think they’re in charge aren’t really paying attention.
I don’t want you to think that I’m advocating gasoline either, I’m not, I’m ruing a missed opportunity – not that it really existed in the first place, but, it’s a really a shame how macro-economics have recognized that it’s just so easy to sell to the lowest common denominator, poor, stupid humanity, to make an idea that was being forced on you anyway “work” for the bottom line.
When you boil things down to an individual level, what’s not to like? The car is freakin’ awesome. So, we soldier on.
Super Yacht Adastra
I know, I know – you’ve all seen these CG mockups of awesome yacht’s before, big deal. Well, this one is a big deal – this one is being built, right now, as we speak, in China. The Super Yacht Adastra is designed by the John Shuttleworth Yacht Design Co and is a testament to modern accoutrement and efficiency. It’s also absolutely stunningly beautiful. Check out the gallery for further mockups and a look into the build project.
$TBD – but far more than you and I can ever hope to attain.
Check out at john-shuttleworth.com
Game of Thrones Playing Cards
I love the catch phrase on the box – “You Win or You Die!” If only things were quite that dramatic we might actually accomplish the more menial tasks around here, but I digress.
Do you like Game of Thrones (who doesn’t?), do you like playing cards (who doesn’t?) – then it most certainly makes sense to combine them, no? Oui, indeed, it most certainly does.
The best part is, they’re really rather inexpensive at $4.99 and would probably set hearts aflutter among the most ardent Game of Thrones fans in your life. Do ‘em favor, get ‘em some playing cards.
$4.99
Check them out EntertainmentEarth.com
The Eagle Jaguar E-Type Speedster
“The Evolution of the Most Beautiful Car ever made…” I don’t know if I’d go quite that far, but they’re not far off the mark. If you’re as tired as I am of ‘super’ cars with their sharp angles and futuristic curves, while not wanting to sink into the soupy quality of “retro” styling either – I think I may know what you’re looking for. It’s called ageless beauty. And the Jaguar E-Type is most certainly that.
What’s happened here is that the E-Type has been, let’s say, upgraded, to make it a more relevant car for today’s discerning driver.
Eagle is by far the foremost restorer of older E-Types, and has taken it upon themselves to take the car forward to a new generation. Everything is done by hand to a level of detail meticulous doesn’t do justice in describing.
Take a break, check out the Eagle Speedster – and if you’re feeling frisky, fork over close to a milly and she’s all yours. Trust me, no one will suggest it was a moment of poor judgement when this juggernaut of elegance rolls into view.
$700,000+
Check it out at JaguarSpeedster.com
2012 Shelby Mustang 1000
Why the ’1000′ moniker? Glad you asked. How about because this beast pushes 1000hp through your right foot to the rear wheels? How does that sound, bad boy? Yeah you like that, don’t you? Got you all tingly, don’t it? Well, back it down a touch – it’s actually closer to 950+ hp. The Shelby 1000 is the follow-up to the 800-hp Shelby GT500 Super Snake and aims to improve upon what we thought was the perfect ‘Stang.
What’s that? You want more? Well then, how about the Shelby 1100? Guess what the ’1100′ stands for? You guessed it – 1100hp.
Unfortunately, the Shelby 1100 S/C is a track-only car and not meant to be taken down to the shops for a quart of milk.
No word on price just yet, but the fine folks over at automobilemag.com have all the deets.
$TBD
Check it out at automobilemag.com
Resurrect Dead – The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
I’m a sucker for a good documentary. This, this is a good documentary, by honest, earnest, film makers. I would not suggest something you would not enjoy, and if you have even the slightest ability to enjoy a documentary, you will be riveted.
The first Toynbee tiles started to show up on city streets in the early 80′s, well before you and I had dial-up connections. At first, most people thought they were a local phenomenon, tied to their inner-cities. Then the internet comes barreling along, and people begin to realize – there’s Toynbee tiles in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Florida and even as far south as South America – but what do they mean?
They weren’t graffiti, they weren’t cheap decals, these were handcrafted tiles integrated into the pavement via a tarring process.
You may or may not know of the Toynbee Tile mystery, I had actually come across it years ago in the early days of the internet – I remember visiting the site, marvelling at the eccentricity of it all and loving the viral nature of it.
One point I want to make abundantly clear, the Toynbee tiles were viral before viral marketing became a viable term. The Toynbee tiles were guerrilla marketing long before Banksy and way before the suits in downtown New York ad agencies started to use it as an option for promoting their products. That wasn’t their point, but the effect was the same.
Genius sometimes doesn’t know it’s genius.
$15
Resurrect Dead – The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles from Amazon.com
Adidas Climacool Seduction
While Nike flirts with sock-like FlyKnit shoes, Adidas continues to pump out some of the most stylistic shoes on the planet. Did you know that Puma and Adidas used to be the same company? It’s true, owned by the brothers ‘Dassler’ Adidas and Puma were formed when ‘Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik’ split shortly after WW2. One brother formed Adidas, the other, Puma. You might also be unawares that Adidas owns Reebok, TaylorMade golf and your favourite confortable biz-casual shoe – Rockport.
I’ve long been a fan of the Climacool series, and I own a pair as it is. I normally don’t tread quite as close to the colour barrier as these shoes do, but if you’re going to make a statement, do it with primary colours – not neons. With the Seduction, Adidas got it right – they’re gorgeous.
Update: Added new Climacool Seduction commercial, featuring David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Derrick Rose and Katy Perry.
Details
CLIMACOOL provides 360-degree cooling for the entire foot
Clover-shaped Coolever mesh upper for heat and sweat management and increased performance
Coolever mesh lining for comfort; Perforated sockliner for breathability
Molded perforated midsole for lightweight cushioning
adiWEAR outsole offers the ultimate in high-wear durability
$100
Check them out at Adidas.com
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larson’s original title in the “Girl who…” trilogy introduces us to Lisbeth and Mikael, the hacker and the journalist who become unlikely bedfellows in a twisted plot to uncover a decades old mystery. Most of you should already be somewhat familiar with the film as the hype that preceded it was quite heavy, and not without merit. David Fincher has crafted yet another brilliant dark film that will have you entranced throughout the duration. It is not a film, or book for that matter, that pulls punches, so prepare yourselves – and you’ll be taken on a whirlwind journey into a dark world where not everything is what it originally appears to be.
BMW Mountain Bike Enduro 2012
BMW not only makes cars and motorcycles, but via their shop.bmwgroup.com site, you can take a look at all of their various other wares. First and foremost, their Enduro line of Mountain Bikes – BMW design’s with beauty and the Enduro 2012 is unquestionably beautiful.
Featuring a new robot-welded powder coated frame, with 4-pivot rear suspension and a 30-speed Shumano Deore shift system – the bike will be available in showrooms soon.
$4500 approx.
Check it out at shop.bmwgroup.com
