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Paul Frère, a singular driver, engineer, and journalist. A big hero of mine.
25 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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Here's some brain fodder to play with the next time you're stuck in traffic: Evolution of Car Logos
Just look at the evolution of the SAAB badge. Amazing how much churn there is on the automotive branch of the tree for a brand which only emerged after WWII:
Myself, I like the 1949 badge the best. Don't like the screaming chicken so much. How does one say "Burt Reynolds" in Swedish?
As I look through this site, I have to admit that many of the older badge renditions are at least as compelling as their replacements, and often more so. Having been a brand manager at one point in my peripatetic career, I sense that the rationale for many brand revisions or logo redesigns are rooted more in internal politics and the need to do something tangible for one's yearly performance review than in market needs. In other words, most customers probably don't care if your new logo is slightly better than your old one, especially if they just finally got used to the old one, because it has only been the old for the three years that have passed since the last redesign. As with management, sometimes the best marketing may be no marketing at all...
Anyway, it's fun stuff. Thanks to Tim for pointing me to this link!
20 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Just the other week I had the pleasure of dropping in on one of Bob Sutton's graduate courses at Stanford. I was supposed to be on paternity leave, but if you haven't noticed yet, I have this thing for racing and cars, and well, it's only a ten-minute walk to the Stanford campus from where I live, and my wife is a kind and charitable soul when it comes to indulging my passion for gearhead gnarlyness. Call it a busman's holiday. This particular class (pictured above) deals with navigating innovations through complex organizations. Yes, that's a real NASCAR racer. Yes, those are real live Stanford graduate students. And yes, that's what February in California looks like.
So what's going on in the photo? A very interesting exercise in teamwork which exposes and illuminates all sorts of juicy issues in organizing for innovation. In this class, Sutton, co-teacher Michael Dearing, and guest lecturer Andy Papathanassiou of Hendrick Motorsports get teams of students to go through the process of changing the tires on a NASCAR machine. It is harder than it looks: the tires and rims are heavy, the car wants to fall of the jack (well, it is on jack stands, but it feels like it wants to fall off), and the lug nuts seem to be cross-bred with jumping beans. You can read more about the class exercise here and here.
After 60 minutes of watching teams of students go from zero to hero in terms of their tire-changing acumen, my head was buzzing with lessons for those studying the art and science of bringing cool things to life:
Note to self: if ever I find myself swapping out new rubber in a big hurry, keep the trigger down on the air gun. WFO, baby!
19 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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Did you forget? Join all of us at metacool in celebrating February 8 as Eccentric Clamp Day
Tell your friends! Gearheads of the world, unite!
08 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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"I suddenly understood with great clarity that nothing in life—except death itself—was ever going to kill me. No meeting could ever go that badly. No client would ever be that angry. No business error would ever bring me as close to the brink as I had already been."
- David E. Davis, Jr., on the liberating effects of the automobile accident which almost claimed his life
07 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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05 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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It seems I'm not the only one enamored of satin finishes.
Rob Poltras of I Love Substance has been tracking this trend for the past year. Check out his portfolio of mattness: Catching Up on Flat Black Hotness
04 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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Last weekend, as I tended to my newest market offering's complex fluidic thermodynamic power systems in the wee hours of the morning, I flipped on the tube and watched more than a few laps of the 24 Hours of Daytona.
A Mazda RX-8 (pictured above) won its class, beating out a gaggle of Porsche 911's for the honor. In no sense a stock car (see the video at the end of this post for a walkaround this full tube-framed racer), this RX-8 nonetheless points to the future of car design for us civilians: look closely and you'll notice that the paint isn't glossy. Instead, the luscious carbon fiber panels on this machine are matte black, or satin if you will. Wax not needed or desired.
We've been raised to believe that gloss is good, that shiny equals quality. Those days are over. Hear this now: the cult of the waxed car body is melting, and this RX-8 represents the tipping point. Sure, beating the 911's at Daytona is a win for the ages, but sporting a matte finish and finishing first -- that's a tipping point. If manufacturing and repair (how do you buff out a matte finish?) issues can be solved, I think we'll start to see a lot of matte paint jobs rolling around. And a lot of them will likely be dirt-shedding nano particle finishes. Even cooler. We've already see matte paint on show cars from BMW and Lamborghini.
Matte is the New Black.
Here's a video of the Daytona-winning RX-8 from the driver's seat (oh, the wail of a rotary motor!):
And here's an extra treat in the form of a most gnarly walkaround the car in the presence of race Nick Ham. Check out the paint (shown to best effect toward the end of the video):
02 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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