PORTOFINO - PRIMO IN EVERY RESPECT

After the bloated ‘bare essentials’ BMW Z4; and the boat-tail Benz Maybach drop-top shown in Monterey, California last week, comes a truly beautiful sportscar – Ferrari’s new Portofino.

 

Pointedly eschewing a reveal in Monterey, leaving the spotlight to be fought over by less beautiful cars, Maranello grabbed all the limelight this week by showing off its new GT which replaces the California T.

The new car debuts in Frankfurt next month.

This is Italian subtlety in styling at its best, and interestingly, not an external carrozzeria in sight. It was all done in-house as a collaboration between the design group, and the aerodynamicists from the Formula One team. Portofino is also built on a brand new, superleggera, platform offering outstanding rigidity.

Even the name rolls off the tongue with a beauty of expression reserved for this bella machina.

One of Italy’s primo resorts, Portofino is famous as a haunt of rich and famous Italophiles.

The Portofino is a 2+2 (piccolo persones), with a retractable hardtop, and it looks wonderful top up, or down.

The twin turbo 3.9L V8 boasts more power (592bhp), both from uprated internal components, and tweaking the ‘chip’ in the computer management system.

Inside it's all business, with a new steering wheel, paddles which are stationary, and a new touch screen system.

I could easily be convinced that this will be one of Ferrari’s best sellers in years.

Summing up. In a word, Portofino - Perfetto!

FORD'S ODE TO OVALS - THE BIG OVOID BLUNDER

During my time as VP of Public Relations for Jaguar Cars North America I became very good friends with Ford’s VP of Design, Jack Telnack. Each time business took me to Dearborn I would call in at the Design Centre to say hello – and to my great joy he would walk me through the various studios.

One day in early 1994 Jack took me to the Advanced Studio and introduced me to Design Director, Doug Gaffka, who was working on a ‘secret’ project. With a nod from Telnack, Gaffka pulled the cover off a clay model, and there before me was the third generation Taurus, due for launch in two years.

What took my breath away was that the designers had gone mad with ovals. There was an oval rear window, oval exhaust tips, oval grille and next to the full-size clay was a seating buck with an oval-shaped centre instrument panel.

At the launch Telnak appeared to be defending the ‘ovoid’ theme:

“We have completely redesigned Taurus for 1996, using a controversial new shape which was penned to make the Taurus stand out to sedan buyers. This shape is based upon that of an oval, inspired by Ford's own logo.”

While the automotive media were generally kind, the public did not react well to the ‘spaceship Taurus’ as it became known.

In fact within six months Ford had resorted to massive marketing discounts and incentives to move stock, and by 1997 Ford had lost the lead in its segment to the Camry and Accord.

It seems like all divisions of Ford had the ‘ovoid pill’ slipped into the corporate Kool-Aid.

Late in 1996 Ford Australia decided to introduce the Taurus, in one high-line Ghia version, with all the bells and whistles.

I was commissioned to write a two-car comparison with the current Holden Commodore competitor, the Calais.

After three days of testing, it was Holden 1; Ford nil.

There was no joy for Ford Australia up against Australia’s biggest selling sedan.

The Taurus also suffered in direct comparisons with Ford Australia’s own Falcon, which at the time was selling its socks off, and many industry pundits asked the question: “Why?”

Taurus lasted just two years, and in the end Ford Australia was also forced to resort to massive discounts to move the last remaining stock. It was a brave new design, but just too brave for such a conservative market.

MERCEDES-BENZ MAYBACH 6 CABRIOLET. HUH?

I have no words to adequately describe this concept car, revealed for the first time in Monterey, California during the week of automotive events, dominated by the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
So I'll just reprint part of the press kit.

The glamorous cabriolet reinterprets classic, emotional design principles in an extravagant way and combines intelligent beauty with classic, aesthetic proportions and a reduced, technoid appearance – a perfect embodiment of the design philosophy of Sensual Purity.

The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet is designed as an electric car. The drive system has an output of 550 kW (750 hp). The shallow underfloor battery allows a range of over 500 kilometres according to the NEDC (over 200 miles according to EPA). 

Measuring almost six metres in length, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet incorporates the classic proportions of art deco design with its extremely long bonnet and puristic, flowing lines, and at the same time completely reinterprets these aesthetic principles.

The extended, round "boat tail" format of the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet's rear recalls a luxury yacht, and narrow tail lights which emphasise the width of the vehicle are integrated in its outer edges. Further distinctive features at the rear include the diffuser with aluminium frame and the air outlets behind the wheel arches.

BUYING A CAR IN A MALL? SUDDENLY, EVERYTHING NEW IS OLD

The online challenge to bricks and mortar retail stores, represented by Amazon and eBay, is also impacting bricks and mortar car dealer showrooms in Australia in the form of CarSales.com and Gumtree Cars.

Infiniti in Queensland, Subaru in Victoria

The car makers are dipping their collective toes into the ‘live retail’ space by creating pop-up car displays in both high traffic, and high-end mall spaces in Australia, like the Subaru store Chadstone in Victoria; and an Infiniti outlet at Pacific Fair on the Queensland Gold Coast.

Mall pop-ups in the USA

It’s catching on globally, with companies from the top end of the luxury sector like Mercedes-Benz AMG, as well as more accessible brands like Suzuki and Hyundai, as well as the obvious electric mover and shaker, Tesla.

But, like all good ideas these new players are late to the game, it’s been done before – and I’m proud to say I was part of the company which started it all, and here I pay tribute to my friend, Ric Hull, the CEO who launched Daewoo cars onto the Australian market back in 1994.

Always an original thinker, Ric decided back in 1997 that investing millions of dollars in motor shows around the country was wasted money. It may have been nothing more than an expensive branding exercise, and could have been better spent on a process that would actually 'sell' cars.

Ric (extreme left) decided to scrap the motor show circuit, and in 1998 Daewoo Auto Australia rented floor space at five key shopping malls in the east coast cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The only sunk cost was the newly-created point-of-sale signage. The floor space was rented, furniture was rented, getting the Daewoo cars to the mall was just another transport charge.

It was slow to catch on, because consumers did not expect to see cars on display at their local Mall, but gradually it enticed both new prospects, and the people who hated going into a dealer showroom, where they felt intimidated and out of their comfort zone.

Over the next two years though the idea grabbed attention, and the sales gradually trickled in. The pop-up car shows in the Malls were matched by an innovative service program called Daewoo FreeCare – where the scheduled service was free for the life of the warranty. Another Ric Hull initiative, it was an innovative program which helped Daewoo Auto Australia sell 25,000 cars in its first three years of operation.

Daewoo Chairman
Kim Woo Choong

Sadly, the Daewoo parent corporation became mired in controversy and failed attempts to service its enormous borrowings, leading to the company’s eventual failure, and being absorbed by General Motors.