Frankfurter

Transmission intercepted by outside source….

Sending out identity hail…

DS14 responding…

Hb34ht9vy801uv…

Note attached as follows…

It should be noted that the transmission received by this station and as follows this interception was written by an exhausted, ill and over worked sub-standard agent. Please forgive the slightly lack lustre nature of this weeks transmission from Sol System. That is all.

…admiralty code attached…

Original transmission follows…

Transmission begins…

Although it would be easier to keep the little Abarth 500’s turbo on the boil with a paddle shift auto I can’t help thinking it would be less fun. The Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari may look good and go well, but really? An auto on a super hot 500? Really? Really, really?

Oh well.

Ferrari’s own 458 took allot of the attention. It’s certainly prettier than the 430, more efficient than the 430 and quite a bit quicker (in standard form) than the 430. Who’s betting the new McLaren will be just as good though?

And now for a question.

Can you think of a single car that’s looked better post-facelift? I can’t. The Punto Evo certainly looked better pre surgery, pre-Evo badge. Kia’s Ceed (verging on the good looking) definitely looked better last year. Why do they do it?

Oh yea.

Consumerism.

The need to have new stuff on show without doing too much work.

Yea. That.

Anyway;

Audi, terminally boring as they are, have released yet another sub niche car. Welcome in Audi A5 Sportback. The product of mixing A5 and A4 genealogy, we have Audi’s answer to royal style genetic barrel scrapping. How long before Audi’s product children become disfigured and stupid is anyone’s guess…

From the ridiculous to the sublime, I’m gonna go out on a whim and say the Lambo Reventon Cabriolet is better looking the coupe. Somehow it just fits better. Seeing it in the flesh (if I’m lucky enough) could change my mind, but really, even the Reventon is irrelevant. What I’m really waiting for is next years Mercielago replacement. My eyes are watering in anticipation just thinking about it.

From the sublime to the sober, it can be said with certainty that EV’s or electric vehicles dominated this year’s show. Audi unveiled what amounted to corporate bullshit mock-up pictures of an EV R8. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great idea, but drawings do not a show car make. Much more promising was Ford and Volvo’s electric Focus and C30. Indeed neither showcased impressive figures but what they do show is that at long last Ford is on the road to electrification.

Albeit with the conventional drive-train, Mercedes also showed a its new electric car. The new Gullwing will get full EV status by 2012 but in the mean time it stands as easily the best looking car Merc have made for ten, possibly thirty years. It maybe unashamedly retro but the Gullwing was right first time in the 50’s. No need to argue with that.

All of this though, all of this pales into insignificance. All of this is just the turning of cogs in the march towards consumer ideals. What’s the best news of the show? What mattered to me most?

I’ll tell you.

Come in close, now.

I’m going to whisper this very slowly.

Lotus.

Are.

Coming.

Back.

To.

F1.

Amen.

Transmission Ends…