Re*Move

Jaguar's 75th Birthday bash

 

Jaguar officially celebrated its 75th Birthday on Friday. And to mark the event, a convoy of 75 Jaguars, featuring every model the firm has made since 1935, left Millenium square in Coventry on Friday morning for Wellington Barracks, opposite the Queen's modest pile somewhere in London, SW1. Having celebrated the anniversary of Sir William Lyons' unveiling of the very first Jaguar model - the SS, in the same room of the Mayfair hotel on Friday night, on Saturday morning the cavalcade resumed its journey, heading to Goodwood and the weekend's Revival festival.

What really made this event special were the owners and the untold, unseen stories behind the cars here. The cars on this run weren't just from Jag's own special heritage fleet, or examples that are molly-coddled within an inch of their lives and never used. Owners had brought examples of just about every single model the company's ever made to Coventry - and had then gone through what must have been, frankly, the unnerving process of being paired with a journalist for the trip, who they'd never met and who they then let drive their pride and joy. I travelled with Matthew Nice in his pristine 1967 3.8 S-type, who's story was quite unique. When he was young, Matthew lived with his mum and his grandad, who had bought this very car when it was just a few months old. His grandad ran it until he died, and although Matthew at the time was just 15, his mum realised the attachment and sentimental value the car held, so tucked it away in a barn rather than selling it as part of his grandad's estate. Roll forward to 1997, and Matthew began what turned into a 9-year project to bring the car up to the fully restored, concours condition you see today. The car had never been back to Coventry, nor visited London, and I was only the 8th person to ever drive it. The experience was as magical as one might expect. Driving a car without modern brakes, that doesn't have wing mirrors and that foregoes a radiator fan can prove an occasional challenge in modern traffic, but we made it to Goodwood unscathed, despite the best efforts of London's kamikaze bus drivers and traffic in Knightsbridge on a friday afternoon.

Jaguar has had a troubled existence over much of the past 30-40 years. I've always held Ford somewhat responsible for failing to develop the brand's real potential over the past 15 years or so - but talking to many (much more knowledgable) folk on this trip, changed my view somewhat. The real dispise is reserved for British Leyland; the consensus view being that Ford spent the best part of 20 years with its hands full simply trying to put right the damage done in the 70s. Today, with a fresh and competitive product line-up and under the new ownership of Tata, there is much hope and much expectation about where the brand can go. There are issues of course. Jaguar's 'beautiful fast cars' mantra perhaps sits uncomfortably in an age of apparent financial austerity and environmental imperatives, while despite the improved products, the brand still appeals to a more mature, overtly male market than is ideal. Yet the sense of occasion, together with the exceptionally well executed planning - not to mention investment - that went into this event suggests that the people now running the company have an understanding of how to take the brand forward for the next 75 years. It won't be easy - and much will depend on the investment and autonomy provided by its Indian parents - but I sincerely hope that my children will get to see this brand celebrating its 150th year come 2085.

Favourite photos from the weekend below, while at the bottom of the page click on a link to a photoset of the weekend.

E-type and XK140 await departure from Coventry's Millenium square on Jaguar's 75th Anniversary

MRT 511E - Matthew Nice's 1967 Jaguar S-type, and my steed for the weekend.

You don't see many E-types with paintwork like this... and no, before some wag asks, it's not a matte black wrap!

E-type and MKII follow S-type through the Cotswolds

Matthew Nice at the wheel of his 1967 S-type

Autumnal leaf fall dances across the hood of red E-type outside Berkshire's Vineyard restaurant and hotel

A mirror full of E-types...

Harrods, reflected in a (real) wallnut dash.

Click on the link above to see the full set on flickr.

Joseph Simpson is associate editor of Car Design News and a consultant at Car Design Research

 

Re*Move word cloud 2009

We found this great word cloud visualisation tool at Wordle, so here's our cloud for 2009. We think it makes for a nice graphic, and it's always interesting to remind yourself what you've been writing about over the past 12 months (click on the image for a link to fullsize via flickr). Unsurprisingly, a certain company from Dearborn dominates, but we were pleased to see 'People' up there as one of our biggest themes too. If you think there's someone we should be profiling or talking to in 2010, do drop us a line.

The pitfalls of sustainability

 
An image from The Paper City exhibition and Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of speaking at the Miniumum...or Maximum Cities event at the University of Cambridge, which was organised with Blueprint magazine and the Paper Cities exhibition, which moved up to the famous university town having been at the Royal Academy for the past few months.

Tim Abrahams has produced an excellent write-up of the event over on the Blueprint site, which I’d urge you to check out if you’re interested, because I think he raises a series of important points about where we find ourselves in relation to the sustainability debate.

For some time now, Re*Move has proposed an agenda where sustainability was the context rather than an end in itself, and like Tim, alarm bells rang in Cambridge, because we were left with a feeling that the only reason anyone is doing anything today is in an attempt to be “more sustainable”. When it comes to movement and transportation, this approach of sustainability first is clearly causing problems, because it seems to be preventing us from envisioning and demanding the future that we actually want to have, and instead pushing us towards something influenced primarily by guilt over past excess.

For example, a lot of transport debate in the UK today centres around whether or not we should be building a high speed rail line to the north of England. Anyone who suggests this is a daft idea is right now likely to labeled both unprogressive and anti-sustainability . Yet anyone who dares suggest a third runway at Heathrow is a good idea, is obviously hell bent on seeing the planet rapidly burn.

Yet the pitfalls of high-speed 2 are multifold. We can already get from Manchester to London in two hours, so should we really prioritise spending billions on reducing this by half? And while it’s automatically assumed that getting the train is better from a carbon perspective, throw real-world load factors into the bargin, and the reality is that a modern, full Airbus is comparative. Meanwhile, the car (which has apparently lost its number one spot to the airplane, in the planet mauling stakes) has improved so much in the past five years that if you’re driving two-up in a Golf diesel, you’ll definitely produce less carbon than going on the train. For me, the biggest issue with High Speed 2 is that an idea which is fundamentally two-hundred years old seems to be stopping us from pushing the boundaries of imagination about what we might do instead, that would be palpably better.

So some of my talk at Cambridge bemoaned this sense that we’d got stuck with a handful of transport formats, and that – with cars and trains at least, they were monocultural. We’ve sized everything to fit them, and one of the reasons we aren’t all riding round on things like Segways in cities, is that cities are fundamentally designed, and sized, for people to use cars. This might sound like I’m suggesting we simply have to keep using cars – as they are - to get around cities. I’m not, but what I’m pointing out is the need for a systems level approach. Will you enjoy trundling up the A40 in a Renault Twizy? Or would you be altogether more tempted by the idea of La Regie’s concept scooter/car cross if you could zip up and down one of Chris Hardwicke’s Velo-City cycle tubes on your way to the office?

Sustainability is the context we now work in. And we’ve little doubt (and are very happy with the notion) that in 5-10 years time, our cities will all be full of things like electric cars. Which will be great for local emissions, but highlights the problem with today's short-sighted sustainability focus, as it won’t do anything to stop us from spending half of our lives sat in traffic jams.

If we simply focus on sustainability as our end point, we’re likely just to end up with a mildly de-carbonised version of what we have now. And the likelihood is that we won’t even achieve that, because when people know they’re saving carbon, they psychologically feel (and often financially are) able to do more and just end up ‘reusing’ what they’ve saved.

Sustainability has created a psychology of fear, where we fear to dream of real improvement and hesitate to think big. What do we mean by improvement? Things which work more quickly or get us places faster, thus providing us with more free time or time with our families and friends. Things that are measurably more fun, or more exciting to ride in or drive than what we have today. Things which cost us less money to use, own or run. Better means thinking about how we link up travel – so we might spend more time in one place and combine trips – rather than rushing from one short hop flight destination to another. Better might mean finding a way to link leisure and business travel together.

But better also means new. New ideas, new products, services and concepts. In essence, we need to dream, and be allowed to think big. If we think of the figures who created some of our totems of mobility – people like Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Andre Citroen, Frank Whittle – we still admire and count on the inventions and contributions they made for our mobility backbone today. On Re*Move, we try to highlight and showcase the work of people we hope or think might become modern day IKBs or Whittles. But there are precious few of them around. I’d go as far to argue that the contributions and inventions made by these famous figures, would never have happened had they been around today, working in this world constrained by the fear of sustainability. We are not simply going to solve the predicament we are in by attempting cut, after cut, after cut. We are going to have to dream, and dream big.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 1st December 2009

Prius Week: Is it going to make me fat?

It'd be stupid to suggest that more efficient, cleaner cars are a bad thing. Surely, getting to a point where cars produce little or zero emissions, and use no oil, would be a good thing - right?

To me, the biggest and most useful role the Prius plays today, is in acting as a technological stepping stone from where we are now, to where we're going to go in the future. It introduces the notion of a car being powered, and driving, differently to what many of us are used to, while still operating in a way we can understand and not looking so odd as to spook people out about our automotive future...

But last night, one unintended consequence of a future with zero-emission cars struck me right between the eyes. Allow me to explain. My own car sits outside the house most of the week, largely because I'm quite dictatorial about it not being used for short, local trips. Pick-ups at the station, shopping in Kingston, popping to the corner shop or supermarket - these aren't jobs for the internal combustion engine, they're jobs for my legs.

Yet at 8 o'clock last night, halfway through a Nigel Slater Japanese noodle recipe, I suddenly realised we didn't have a critical ingredient - the noodles. Normally at this point (besides swearing a lot), I'd have given up and cooked something else, or run half a mile up the road to Waitrose to get some. Yet, with a Prius parked outside, I didn't hesitate to jump in and glide up to said Supermarket, because hey, going in the car certainly was quicker than walking, and this was a hybrid car, so I could do most of the trip in electric mode and hence without guilt or emissions.

The issue this causes - potentially - is that we reach a point sometime in the future, where people stop thinking about the most appropriate mode of transport for a trip, and simply use their car regardless. I may be wrong, but today I think a healthy proportion of people now think about whether their car is the best vehicle to use for a very short local trip. I suspect two primary factors in this are cost and environmental concerns. But if we remove these two factors (which hybrid or electric cars potentially do) the unintended consequences are clear to see - worse traffic, more parking issues, all the usual stuff bandied about by the anti-car brigade. I'm treading a tricky line here. I'm not suggesting the Prius and the green car movement many credit it with creating is a bad thing, or that we should attempt to stop it. Lower carbon, less guilt car travel is largely a good thing. Yet I can't help wondering if we're asking the wrong question when it comes to urban travel. Electric cars are now seen as a panacea. But we should be wary, particularly about the impact on urban environments - of a future where we're using what is still a 1400kg, 10 square metre sized device to move one 80kg human a mile down the road.

Oh, and perhaps because of this type of driving behaviour, our average fuel economy has now fallen to 52mpg. Food for thought.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 16th October 2009

Hitting the floor in Frankfurt - IAA 2009

Just before we hit the Frankfurt show floor, Mark asked Joe about what his expectations were for the Frankfurt motorshow. Let's see if these pereceptions change over the next couple of days...

Posted by Joseph Simpson from the Frankfurt show floor on 15th September 2009

Follow us in Frankfurt - IAA 2009 on Re*Move

The Re*Move team decamps to Frankfurt this week, as we’re covering the International Auto show (IAA) which starts tomorrow. So that you don’t have to blister your feet, we’ll be trudging round the messe’s vast halls – covering the important announcement and vehicle launches, asking the tricky questions and generally shoving cameras where others tend not to shove them.

Primarily, we’re there as part of our ongoing work with Ford – and we’ll be looking closely to see whether there’s been any progress with Ford’s electrification strategy. We’ll also be closely examining the new C-Max, a European c-segment MPV, but one which signifies the look of the new Focus family, a car which will be launched in all of Ford’s major markets including North America.

Ford Grand C-Max images leaked out last week...previews direction of world Focus

Elsewhere, we’re itching to find out what Renault’s four (yes, four) EVs look and feel like, and will be paying particularly close attention to the tiniest member of the quartet you see in this plan-view picture. Has La Regie seen the value in the personal-mobility future city market? And is it going after BMW’s project i and Toyota’s i-Series vehicles? We’ll find out.

Renault's four EVs for Frankfurt, from the top. We're most interested in the far left...

Sticking with the Renault connection, we’ll also be talking to the team from Better Place to find out how their electric car-charging network and battery swap-station plans are progressing. We’re also keen to learn more about BMW’s Vision Efficient Dynamics concept. It’s important because it’s positioning green technology, and green branding as a flagship idea which is synonymous with premium. BMW’s efficient dynamics programme has impressed us in the past, but it’s decision to make Project I vehicles a premium sell, and its recently launched ‘Joy’ brand campaign have left us flat. Where does Vision ED fit in?

Aside from that, we’re keen to field questions from the watching world. If there’s anything that’s bugging you in terms of news coming from the show, anyone you want us to try and grab, or something you’re particularly interested in, get in touch – and we’ll do our best to cover it.

Don’t forget all Re*Move material is creative commons licensed, so you can reuse and incorporate our words, photos and videos in your own publications. And if you want the intravenous feed of info, follow our twitter streams - @JoeSimpson and @Charmermrk (we’d also recommend @Drewpasmith, @carnorama, @ericgallina and @skymotoring if you’re watching on twitter), and we’re using the hashtag #IAATweetup along the way on twitter, and for our alternative designer/after show party on Tuesday night, which - we should point out - if you're in town, you don't need a VIP invite to get in to.... Here on Re*Move, all the material will be tagged Frankfurt. So sit back, stay tuned, and do feel free to comment or connect and ask us about what's going on. Tshuss!

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 14th September 2009, Frankfurt Messe picture - Mattingham on Flickr, Ford C-max - Ford, Renault EV - Renault (via autoblog)

Future Influence. When Amy met Drew.

While Ford is busy designing cars (questionably) around a mythical Italian female persona called Antonella, it and other companies need to be adapting themselves to interact with another group entirely.

They may seem virtual, but they're very real, and they come with loyal, influential followers. And they don't wait to be hired - they crave to be hired and have more useful insights along the way than most who already are.

Drew Smith is one of a new generation of commentators, driving conversations online about the future. Subject experts, independent of mind and building their careers around a portfolio - of experience, opinion, connections and commissions. He edits the Downsideupdesign blog.

Amy talks to him below. Listen carefully, because he's exactly the kind of person who is starting to influence how brands are perceived, design conversations happen, and connections are forged. In the past, people either got jobs in an industry or didn't. Once they were in, they got locked behind walls for years, until they got onto a press spokesperson list. Now they can dive into and across industry projects, often hired because they've already articulated problems publicly. They can build their own unique identity, online content and networks of supporters, share their ideas and work together more easily with others than many who work in siloed departments. Many are cross-discipline, combining understanding of product, service and interactive design.

Drew is a vehicle designer and expert in making sense of the future of the autombile and car brands. Check out his views from earlier this summer on the failure of car companies to interest the 'digital generation'. It's important stuff that doesn't usually get talked about.

Drew is unique, but of course he's not - he's one of an emerging group. You might be carving out a similar purpose - in urban planning, product design, social software, interactive design, service design, environment technologies or services. The sky's the limit. If so, we'd love to get to know you.

Amy Johannigman aka @amydoesdesign interviewed @drewpasmith from The Movement Design Bureau in London. Drew was in the Australian outback, on holiday. Monday, 3 August 2009. Want to know more about Amy? Then read her views about the future of design in this piece here.

Getting to work during a tube strike

London was due to grind to a halt today. Seems like I got lucky...

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 10th June 2009

Introducing Electric Delivery

Electric Delivery is a new Movement Design Bureau project to explore and document fleet electric vehicles, particularly delivery vans and trucks.

The delivery van market is one of the first areas in which the electric vehicle could become the new transportation standard. The relatively short trips, often in stop-and-go traffic are ideally suited to current generation electric vehicles, unlike some of the more traditional uses of the car.

Fleet vehicle buyers can spend the time to understand the bottom line benefits - environmental and financial - for making the electric vehicle switch in a way that ordinary car buyers cannot always do, making fleet buyers able to switch to new electric vehicle options more easily than ordinary car drivers.

Our new project - Electric Delivery - seeks to understand the commercial electric vehicle market in real detail: over the next six months we will talk to vehicle manufacturers, fleet managers, drivers, customers, and everybody else involved in making real electric vehicles work.

There's a real chance that a new generation of battery technology will give us great new electric vehicles which are more sustainable, affordable, simple, reliable and higher performance than current generation gas and diesel vehicles.

That's for tomorrow. Electric Delivery is about documenting the progress of the working electric vehicle today. White vans first.

See more of The Movement Design Bureau's coverage of future transport, strategy and vehicles - including several in depth interviews and analysis with Ford's top sustainability and design people, here.

Posted by Vinay Gupta and Joseph Simpson on 21st May 2009.

Honda Insight: first impressions

Last week, we spent our time in Detroit running around in a Mercury Mariner hybrid, a small SUV that's the twin sister of the Ford Escape Hybrid. From the perspective of the driver, and for those who've driven a hybrid car, it behaved very similarly to a Toyota Prius. That means it tended to start up and move off on electric power only, and would shut down the gasoline engine on a part/trailing throttle whenever it can, at speeds of up to about 35mph. It achieved an average of 29mpg (US), but to say that we didn't exactly fall in love with it is something of an understatement.

It makes for an interesting comparison, as we've come back to the UK and jumped straight into Honda's new Insight hybrid. The Insight's a much simpler kind of hybrid compared to the Mariner/Prius, but it's nonetheless a hugely important car. Not only will it become the cheapest hybrid drivetrain car you can buy in many markets, but it revives the Insight name, which was first used by Honda in 1999 on it's groundbreaking first ever hybrid car.

The Original, 2-seat Insight, was Honda's first Hybrid, and the first ever hybrid sold on several markets

It also, as many commentators have pointed out, bears a passing resemblance to the ubiquitous Prius. Yesterday, we got the chance to talk to John Kingston - Honda UK's Government affairs and environment manager, about the Insight, hybrids and Honda's future plans in more depth. You'll be able to see that interview on here soon. But for now, you can check out our first impressions and 'road test' of the Insight in the video below:

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 29th April 2009

Images: New Honda Insight - Mark Charmer's iPhone, Original Insight - Frekur on Flickr, under creative commons.

Full disclosure: Honda UK has loaned us the Insight for one week, free of charge.