The Fifth McGann

Everyone knows the four famous McGanns.

Paul, Stephen, Mark and Renault.

Paul is being particularly famous this week seeing as how he is the 8th Doctor Who.

But as well as an eighth Doctor, we have a fifth McGann:

Porsche McGann (although the spelling has been changed for artistic reasons to "Macan")

 

Drive.com.au tell us that the new Porsche Macan, as debuted at the LA and Tokyo Motor Shows is going to be the smallest Porshe SUV ever available.  Porsche have got Maria Sharapova to model it for them.

 

I like Maria Sharapova.

 

I don't like tennis but I still like Maria Sharapova although I'm not convinced  by this photo of her. 

Her proportions seem wrong.

And so do the car's.

That photo comes from the Forbes site, specifically the work of Hannah Elliot.  I've already decided I don't like Hannah Elliot - maybe I'm jealous that, to quote Hannah Elliot, "I cover the fun stuff: Fashion, Cars and Culture" although, having said that, I have no interest in fashion or culture.

But back to the Aussie site.  It states that, "The Porsche Macan, measures 4699mm in length, 1923mm in width and 1624mm in height, making it 146mm shorter, 16mm narrower and 82mm lower than the Cayenne" - and here's the Cayenne:

Which is where we get back to proportions.  On a car this size, those size differentials make no difference - 14.6cm shorter! - under 6" in real money! - this will look exactly like a Cayenne - the only real difference is that this car utilises VW's new MQB platform so will be cheaper to engineer.  They should just call it a MkIII Cayenne and be done.

 

More of a Macan't than a Macan.

Getting Wood

Someone at Autoguide must be on something strange.

Maybe Viagra.

First I see this picture:

it goes with this story about a vibrating gear knob - one for the ladies perhaps?

 

Although the person in the photo (I'm guessing it's a man) is about to grasp it with his left hand in a left-hand drive car - looks dodgy to me.

 

Unless it is actually a right-hand drive car and the passenger fancies a grope.

 

The story is about a Ford engineer who has developed the vibrating gear-knob that is wi-fied to the engine CPU and is supposed to tell the driver when to change gear.  I guess this would require the driver to keep a hand on the gearstick all the time when driving - not a bright idea.

 

Anyway, lots of modern cars have little irritating lights somewhere near the speedo (small "s" - nothing to do with tiny swimming trunks) which light up at gear-change time.

 

Or, you can do what I do and go by the engine noise and general feel.

 

Having recovered from that shocking story, I then saw this shocking picture: 

It is from this Autoguide story.  Fortunately, it is a computer rendering - it doesn't exist in the flesh yet - but it could.

It's what happens when a Porsche Cayenne is given wood.

Silex is Golden

Welcome to the Silex Power Cheerios - sorry, Chreos.

This is a start-up based in Malta and the initial publicity and drawings remind me of the early releases from Eterniti with their Hemorrhoid, which eventually transmogrified into the re-jigged Porsche Cayenne that is the Artemis - so nothing like they were initially claiming - and with most of their setting up done by Porsche.

Another thing that makes me sceptical about the Chreos is that everything shown so far is computer-generated.

And some of their claims seem highly optimistic:

This is an electric car with a range of 1000km (620 miles in real money) and a full charge time of just 10 minutes.

It can also do 185mph and has a sub 3 second 0-60 time.


Fisker must be very worried.

If the claims are to be believed, then this will be an electric car that could be used in the real world in place of a petrol car.


GM, Ford, Toyota etc. must all also be worried.


Silex Power's Website has a promotional video that looks OK:
although the font they use is a bit tricky to read. The car looks like a Bugatti Galibier from the side and an Alfa-Romeo from the front but since it's all CGI that doen't really mean much yet.

They are being very cagey about their batteries but say it is just a development of existing technologies, They also say that the recharge uses something called Hypercharging - there is some information on their site about how this will work but it involves lots of numbers and talk of inverters and kilowatts and amps that went over my head.

They say that they will build their first full-size prototype in July and be selling the cars in 2015.


If they are right, then this is a very big deal. Fox News have picked up on the story but, apart from them, I'm not seeing a lot of coverage.

Is it too good to be true?

Ask a serial optimist...


...or a cereal optimist.

Geddit!?



Oh well, cheerio.

I Don't Want a Porsche

If you were offering to give me one, I wouldn't say no. And I don't dislike Porsches - in fact I quite like some of them. In fact I quite like a lot of them.

But I've never really wanted one.

I've always been a bit scared of the 911 with its engine-sticking-out-the-back-which-really-screws-with-the-handling design which was fine for the Beetle but dodgy for anything that can achieve motorway speeds. Now I know that Porsche have added loads of stability trickery and suspension cleverness over the last 150 years that the 911 has been evolving and it is allegedly a lot tamer and safer to drive nowadays but why not just move the engine?

I have never liked the Boxster - it looks like two fronts of the same car welded back-to-back. Especially the early ones - especially with the hood up.

Yuk!

The Cayenne is just an SUV with a 911 front and the Panamera looks like a 911 stretched-limo.

So, if I was forced to pick - I'd go for the Cayman - the halfway-house between the Boxster and the 911. It looks good - it looks fun - and the engine is in a sensible mid position.

Top Gear Magazine and most of the motoring websites have been making a fuss of the new 2014 (what happened to 2013!?) Cayman as presented at the LA Auto Show lately. Here's the story from my favourite site. It includes a video presented by a Loyd Grossman soundalike.

OK, so maybe, just maybe, I nearly want a Porsche.

Au Revoir Arnoux Clochend

This month's Top Gear Magazine arrived yesterday and I was sorry to see the news that Arnoux Clochend is now undergoing a course of residential therapy after being removed from his post of European Junior Deputy Under manager of Design at the Hang-Su Motor System.

According to my Blog Stats, I get quite a few hits from Google through him. This is because when you type in "Arnoux Clochend", it is my earlier piece, "All-New" Top Gear Magazine that leads the search results. Today's post may be nothing more than a shameless attempt to get some more hits.

I guess it had to come to an end soon, because his writings have been about preparing a concept for the Frankfurt Motor Show which starts on Tuesday.

One concept that may be there, although I am still sceptical, is the Eterniti Hemera as reported by Autocar today. It looks like a real car but could be a photoshop job but is obviously a modified Porsche Cayenne - certainly not like the Peugeot in their original drawings. Plus, the name sounds too much like Haemorrhoid.

Anyway, I'm going to miss old Arnoux and his seriously undervisited Facebook Page.

Oh yes, and I DO KNOW HE WAS NEVER REAL!

To Infiniti and Beyond

What could be beyond Infinity?



Eternity?



Nah. And what happens when you spell them wrong?



Infiniti are Nissan's answer to Toyota's Lexus - luxury well-built cars but a bit boring. I mean look at this G37...It even looks quite Lexusish.



Infiniti have stated that they want to seriously up the numbers they sell in the UK next year. Up to now they've gone for the exclusive angle with a minimal number of dealerships hidden around the country - next year they're opening a few more.



But would anyone want to copy them?



Apparently so.This child's cardboard cut-out of a Peugeot with big wheels is supposed to be the new Eterniti luxury British car launching at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. It's supposed to be an SUV - a posh Cayenne-type for Aston Martin money.



Lots of motoring sites including Autocar and me are mentioning it but I'm not sure why - I doubt if it will ever exist in the metal.



Unless Mattel do a Hotwheels version.



In fact, that looks like who they've nicked the wheel design from.