Men Free Blog

Ever wonder what an Audi R8 would look like if it were to transform into a speedboat? Neither had we, but maybe it would look a bit like this machine, developed by a Swedish company named Vizualtech. The most notable styling element of the R8 are its contrasting blades of color just aft of the doors, and these make the transition to Vizualtech’s catamaran along with the integrated fuel-filler. At the rear are large openings with strakes that mimic the look of the R8’s hind-end nicely. One thing that the Audi doesn’t have are this catamaran’s gull-wing doors. We expect Audi to drop a V10 engine in the R8’s engine bay soon enough, and this sea worthy ship will feature one of its own, though powered by biodiesel and making about 320-horsepower. Top speed falls a bit behind the vehicle that inspired its design at 110 miles per hour, but that’s supercar speed on the water.

The VW Jetta TDI has proven to be quite popular in the short time it’s been on sale here in the U.S.: it has put sales of the Tiguan in the cooler and the ones that are available are very hard to get. Now the fairest Jetta of them all has set a Guinness World Record by traversing the lower 48 U.S. states while returning 58.82 mpg thanks to John and Helen Taylor.

The Taylors took 20 days to cover the 9,419 miles in a counter clockwise direction, and this wasn’t a hypermiling slow-as-you-can-go affair – they stayed within 5 mph of the speed limit. Their car was completely stock as it consumed just 11 tanks of ultra low sulfur diesel and traveled 853 miles per fill up. With that kind of mileage and handling high up on the fun factor, the Jetta TDI makes an excellent case for itself if you like driving and want to lower your fuel consumption.

VW also recently told us that the go-fast Jetta TDIs in the TDI Cup Series are returning an average of 25 mpg and doing their entire 7-race series on just two tanks of gas, which includes qualifying. If that’s true, there’s got to be another world record in there somewhere…

The LA Auto Show is once again hosting its annual Design Challenge in which automakers are asked to let their minds wander and think freely about what future vehicles might actually be like. Last year’s theme was green, but this year designers are being asked to imagine what motorsports will be like in 2025.
Mitsubishi’s answer will be the MMR25 Rally Racer, a way out there concept that draws upon the automaker’s long lineage of successful rally racing to create a sand crawler like we’ve never seen before. We’ve only got a sneak peek for now, so there’s no telling what exotic or outright fictional engine powers the MMR25, but expect it to be just as crazy as those multidirectional wheels.

It’s a fact that the English language is currently being sliced to ribbons. Spelling and grammar have gone out the window, and elocution is such a lost art that we’re amazed when a speaker can manage a paragraph. It’s interesting to see where these shortcomings manifest themselves. One would assume that an advertising agency, being in the business of communicating, would double- and triple-check a message before sending it out for the world to see. Imagine our surprise, then, when across our digital desks slid a memo from Carmichael Lynch trumpeting the Minneapolis, MN agency’s relationship with Subaru of America.

It didn’t start well. The subject header of the email read: “Subaru 360 Goes Airbourn (sic) To Find Home on 10th Floor.” Interesting capitalization, and a very creative spelling of airborne. Bush league for an agency that handles Harley Davidson, Jack Link’s, Cargill, and Toys ‘R’ Us, to name a few. Intrigued by the mention of a 360, Subaru’s diminutive first stab at automobiles, we read on. Carmichael Lynch, upon landing the Subaru of America account in 2007, located a 360 and had it spiffed up for display in the company’s 10th floor lobby. While small, the only way to get the little Subie ten stories up was a crane, which hoisted the car through a window last Saturday. Delightful little story, and we were inclined to give the wacky subject line a pass until we read the last sentence, which started: “Today’s Subaru Forrester…” Whoa. If we were SoA, we’d be incensed. Spelling bee time: Forester. F-o-r-e-s-t-e-r, Forester. Forest is a chronically misspelled word, but it’s still intolerable when it’s the very firm being paid to represent the actual product.

If residents in several cities in Clark County, Washington want to get their cars clean, they could soon be forced to do it at retail car washes. According to an employee at the Washington state Department of Ecology, the state wants “people to make the connection of ‘what goes on the street goes into the creek.’” And soapy car wash residue is something they don’t want in the creek.

The state wants the cities to come up with a way to keep any water that isn’t rain water from getting into the environment without being treated. The cities, about a dozen in all, say that’s crazy, and have threatened to sue the state for trying to enact measures that exceed federal Clean Water Act.

The state suggests that if people still want to clean their cars, that they don’t use soap with phosphorus, and wash their cars on gravel or grass where the water will be filtered by the soil. That’s ironic, because part of the state’s measure also requires sprinkler water to be captured and treated. Residents could always try the state’s other option: don’t use soap at all.

A few weeks ago, the press made a big deal about the fact that John McCain had more houses than he could recall off the cuff. Newsweek has taken the next logical step towards providing the all-important TMI by finding out how many cars each candidate owns.

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle make do with just one vehicle; a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid that replaced the senator’s un-PC but much cooler HEMI-powered Chrysler 300. McCain takes a more, ahem, liberal approach to vehicle ownership, with 13 cars and trucks to fill his seven garages. If we were wealthy and influential, we too would own a lot of cars. That would give us a tangible link to the Republican nominee, except for the fact that our collection of cars would be a hell of a lot cooler. McCain owns a 2004 Cadillac CTS as his daily driver, and it gets less interesting from there. Rounding out the Maverick’s sizable stable is a 2005 VW convertible, a 2001 Honda sedan, a 2007 Ford pickup, a 2008 Wrangler, a 2000 Lincoln, a 2001 GMC SUV, three 2000 NEV Gem electric cars, and a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep. McCain’s wife Cindy, who uses drifting as a form of therapy and sits atop a family fortune from her beer distribution company, drives a Lexus with “MS BUD” vanity plates.

Nothing in that crop of rides screams “I’m rich and powerful,” but if you have seven houses, it makes sense to have at least one vehicle at each residence. What doesn’t make sense is that all of those vehicles are about as exciting as sugar free tapioca pudding.

The Tata Nano, which will be the world’s least expensive car, has already exacted enormous sums of money and time. A dispute over the location of a new factory has cost Tata close to a year of court wrangling and might end up spoiling a £200 million investment. Now the efforts to build the Nano have cost a life.

Unhappy workers were invited to a meeting with Indian and Italian executives of Cerlikon-Graziano Transmissions, which makes auto parts, to discuss reinstatement. Only a few workers were in the meeting, but more than a hundred were waiting outside. When those outside heard someone inside call for help, they rushed in, and in a mob fog anger, bludgeoned the company’s operations head, Lalit Kishore Choudhary, to death.

It was later reported that some of the folks involved in the melee weren’t even employees of the company. What Tata will need to urgently figure out is where it needs to go — inside or outside of India — to build the Nano without backlash. In the mean time, our condolences go to the Choudhary family. Thanks to all who tipped in.

Head to Maserati’s website and you’re greeted with a tantalizingly coy poll, asking users to guess what event will take place on October 2nd, the first day of the Paris Motor Show. The overwhelming popular opinion is that a new car will be debuted, possibly the smaller Maser that’s supposed to take aim at Porsche. A test mule was spied a while back, though that car didn’t have the folding hardtop the new mini-Maserati, based on a hacked-down GranTurismo, is whispered to be carrying. We’ll all just have to wait, each day feeling longer than the next. What else could it be, other than a car? The idea of generating such buzz over a new website, logo, or advertising campaign (all three are choices) is ludicrous, but the rest, including a new production facility could seem plausible. Even more intriguing, it could be all of the above. We want a smaller Maserati, and we’re going to hold our breath until we turn as blue as the website’s banner image to get one.

Last year, many people got their first glimpse of Hyundai’s new Genesis luxury sedan as the Giants beat the stuffing out of the Patriots during Superbowl XLII. Pleased with the results of that effort, Hyundai is coming back to the big game, this time with the Genesis Coupe. Outgoing creative agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is handling two 30-second commercials featuring Hyundai’s sporty new rear-drive two door. While the agency change has raised some eyebrows, Hyundai insists that it will continue to work with Goodby for quite some time, even as it transitions creative duties to World Marketing Group, already handling media buys for the automaker. We’ll have to tune in for all four quarters to see if the jilted ad folks mailed it in, but judging from the quality of Goodby’s work on the Genesis Sedan - and the target-meeting 8,000 units sold - the pigskin-centric effort will likely meet with success.

Somebody’s got to beat back the ugly afflicting the four-door Porsche Panamera when it arrives. 9ff, the Dortmund, Germany-based firm, is actively recruiting orders for its tuned version of the highly anticipated curve-ball from Porsche. There are no details or pictures on the 9ff website, though there is a rendering showing a slightly abstract version of how a warmed up Zuffenhausen sedan may look. While we’re sure the car will be an awesome performer, 9ff will push the envelope even further. It’s a brilliant bit of marketing — basically selling shares in the tuner’s Panamera program before the car has arrived. If enough orders come in, the company will be flush with cash to develop the fastest, most hideously nasty looking car to ever wear the Porsche crest. Yes, even worse than the Cayenne and its nostril fetish.