Serendipity Book

The World of the Decotora

Check out Masara Tatsuki's photographs of the almost 10 years he spent amongst the Decotora, Japanese truckers who elaborately ornament their trucks with lights.

In the accompanying interview Tatsuki says "People are surprised that I spent ten years on this project, but it simply takes time to really understand something. And I wanted to really understand the things I wanted to express. That is why it took so long."  How wonderfully indulgent. Makes you wonder what project you would be willing to invest 10 years in doesn't it?

Via Jalopnik

The Conran G550: a present for big kids of all ages

The Conran Shop are offering their customers something a little bit special this Christmas.

They have teamed up with G Club to create a limited edition replica of the spectacularly gorgeous 1950s Porsche Spyder (pictured).

G Club is one of those dime-a-dozen motorsports clubs (like Damon Hill's P1 and Ecurie 25) who offer the foolishly rich the opportunity to rent time in a variety of supercars for an eyewatering sum of money rather than committing to buying one or two themselves.

The replica is being sold for c. £35k as the "Conran G550". They are only making 55 of them and have placed a red one in their Brompton Cross window display and teased us with a silver one on the street today.

It seems that Terence Conran has always been a bit of a Porsche lover having had 13 Porsches since 1960.

Mini Clubman Designer: "It was all my fault"

"It was design by dictatorship.  All else, this marketing, these focus groups, what have you, is bullshit."
- Mini Clubman chief designer, Gerd Hildebrand.



Until I read this quote I had assumed that some poor designer at BMW had been bullied into designing this impractical and contrived vehicle by some misguided marketers. Now I know who to blame.

"New Mini Clubman is, er, as ugly as 1960s version. We're still in shock."
- Top Gear

"While improving access, [the driver's side 'suicide' door] forces passengers to exit on to the road. This is not acceptable for anyone in particular, and is especially danger­ous for families with small children."
- AutoExpress

"The door arrangement is stupid, allowing rear passengers to exit the car into the traffic flow."
- Sky Motoring

"Contrived? Oh yes. Neither the pair of rear doors nor the club door adds anything to the car's functionality - a conventional tailgate and a pair of long front doors would have been more than adequate - and it's rather a case of style over substance."
- Channel 4 Motoring

That design dictator quote came from metacool who takes a rather different view.

Fifth Gear's Tom Ford gets his hands on the new Fiat 500

Pimped Ride on eBay

Pimp my Ride is something of a guilty pleasure for me. If it comes on I always find myself transfixed by the need to see the "reveal", to see just how preposterous the car looks at the end of it all.

But one thing has always niggled me. These pimped cars full of electronics must cost a fortune to insure and practically scream nick me, strip me, dump me.

And so I wasn't really surprised to  see this outrageously pimped 1988 Nissan Sunny belonging to a massage therapist from Luton called Chris appear on eBay sans bling and sporting a few bruises after it's appearance on Pimp my Ride UK:

HT to Mr Bevis

Best in show: New Fiat 500

Fiat easily bags the award for best stand at the Frankfurt Auto show with this peerless display of confidence:

From the New York Times: "Flush with success — and more spending cash — Fiat has set up an elaborate arcade-style ride in Frankfurt. An enormous model of a 500 towers over Fiat’s show-stand. Half a dozen Fiat 500s run on rails, with a “driver” and passenger hopping into each car while the model’s rear wheel slides away. Each Fiat 500 then slips into the interior of the model. Inside, there is a short video of customized 500s, followed by a faux wash of the windshield, a pose for a silly picture and one last Fiat 500 commercial before ending up back at the beginning of the ride."

Rat-like souped up Fiat 500

Now, I know you're probably getting bored of my obsession with Fiat 500s by now but this video is a bit different. This is what happens if you put a Kawasaki GPZ900R motorbike engine in an old rat-like matt black Fiat 500. I'm guessing this is not as slow as my old one used to be...

If you liked that then I'm guessing that you'll probably enjoy this Abarth 500 rigged for drag racing...

Nuovo Fiat 500 Video

Some rather lovely swooping swirling and sweeping footage of the new Fiat Cinquecento courtesy of german car mag Autobild...

Fiat 500 launch stunt in Sicily

  Palermo: anteprima dell'anteprima della nuova 500 
  Originally uploaded by Florinda©.

Great stunt by Fiat in Palermo, Sicily to launch the new Fiat 500.

They wrapped them up to look like the original and then tore away the wrapper.

Contributed to my Fiat Cinquecento group by Flickr user Florinda.

The car is getting very very good reviews by the way.

When I was working on Fiat in early 2006, I had the pleasure of viewing a full size model of the car at the factory in Turin. The finished version hasn't changed much from the car I remember back then - in fact I think it looks better due to to an increase in the level of detailing at the front end.

Tantalising glimpses of the new Fiat 500

  new fiat 500 [set of 4] 
  Originally uploaded by marcovaleriof.

Some shots have appeared on the Fiat Cinquecento group I started on Flickr which feature a fresh batch of new Fiat 500s which were spotted touring Italy on the back of a truck.

A lovely marketing idea ahead of the launch on July 4.