Hanns Lohrer 1912-1995

Hanns Lohrer 1912-1995

In the 1950s and 60s, Hanns Lohrer, a versatile Stuttgart painter and commercial graphic designer played a pivotal role in the visual appearance of the Porsche brand. The exhibition will include a selected of victory posters created by Lohrer to celebrate Porsche’s sporting successes. Also at the exhibition will be a series of posters designed by Hanns Lohrer in 1961 depicting the Porsche 356 in the context of sports such as golfing, hunting or horse riding.
In addition to the 40 posters, the Porsche Museum exhibition also includes sales brochure artwork by Hanns Lohrer. Visitors can view the famous red cover page of the 1958 356A catalogue showing a woman’s hand wearing an elegant glove and handling the gear shift of a Porsche with seeming effortlessness.

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The poodle motif in the poster showing a refined young lady with a poodle on its lead at the lower right is a symbolic representation of the headline ‘Powerful elegance guided with ease’ a second visual meaning. The poodle is a recurring element in Hanns Lohrer’s work, and is even made the central motif of a 1960 Porsche poster entitled “I too, prefer Porsche”.

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The Porsche Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Admission is € 8.00 for adults, reduced admission is € 4.00. Free admission for children up to 14 years accompanied by an adult. Do let us know if you drop by the Museum.

Tata Motors has appointed Mr. Karl Slym as Managing Director. He succeeds Mr. PM Telang who superannuated from the company in June this year. Mr. Slym shall lead all operations of Tata Motors in India and international markets including South Korea, Thailand, Spain, Indonesia, South Africa. Jaguar Land Rover would continue to be managed independently.

Karl Slym, Managing Director, Tata MotorsMr. Slym has been the Executive Vice President & Board Member,SAIC-GM-Wuling, GM China’s manufacturing joint venture with SAIC and Wuling Motors, since January 1, 2012. Prior to this, he was President, Managing Director and Board Member of GM in India since October 1, 2007. He has had a 17 year career in General Motors in various positions in various geographies.

He is expected to take over his responsibilities on October 1st.

Slym began his career with GM in 1995 as a lean manufacturing advisor at Opel Eisenach in Germany. He then moved on to general assembly manager at the same facility before becoming director of Manufacturing for Opel Polska in Gliwice, Poland, in 1997. In 1999, he moved to GM of Canada as assistant plant manager and later plant manager for its Oshawa car plants.

Slym worked for Toyota U.K. in Derbyshire, England, rising to general assembly manager, before joining GM.

Born in Derby, England, on February 9, 1962, Slym was awarded a Sloan Fellowship from GM and in 2002 earned a Master of Science degree in business administration from Stanford University. He graduated in 1984 from his post-secondary education in production engineering at England’s Derby University.

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The Kawasaki Ninja 650 R has been launched in India by Bajaj Auto.   What gets sold in India and in the USA as the Ninja 650 is actually the ER series of bikes designed originally for Europe as tourers/commuters.  The naked version is the ER-6n and the fully faired version is the ER-6f.  Due to the American liking for the name Ninja this motorcycle was launched in America as the Ninja 650 R in its previous guise.  Please remember that it was the American marketing of arm of Kawasaki that first suggested that its superbikes be called Ninja.

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However, when the ER6f underwent some small redesign and was also launched in the USA the R was dropped and it has only been called the Ninja 650.  Kawasaki USA’s website proves this.  But Bajaj Auto’s website seems to be calling it the Ninja 650 R still so we assume that in India it carries on with that nomenclature.  Most of the changes are on the surface and the bike is just under the Rs. 5 lakh mark in terms of its pricing (ex-showroom).

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Yamaha Scraps Off Valentino Rossi S Superbike Project 3726_1

This was indeed bound to happen.  Only there was a false start when someone intimated this official news a few days ago through a fake twitter account and then an intimation came that it would be on the 15th of August, 2012 when the teams would assemble at Indianapolis after the summer break that the formal announcement would come.  But surprisingly it has come today, five days before the anticipated announcement.  As is the usual protocol Ducati first announced that Valentino Rossi would be leaving them at the end of 2012 and soon after Yamaha announced that Valentino Rossi has signed up with them to partner Jorge Lorenzo for 2013 and 2014.  News also has started circulating that Ducati have finalized on Andrea Dovizioso as the replacement for Rossi in 2013 and this is most surprising given that last year Dovizioso was firm that he would not go to Ducati since the bike had a notorious reputation of unrideability and also because his present teammate at Tech3 Yamaha, Cal Crutchlow has been more than enthusiastic to replace Rossi, even claiming that he could win on the Ducati.  The Dovizioso bit is still in the realm of rumours so one will have to wait a bit more for the official news to be out.  We will soon be writing about how the grid could be next year now that the key piece has fallen into place in the rider jigsaw puzzle for next year.

Press Statement

It is with great pleasure that Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd confirms the signing of Valentino Rossi to ride for the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team for 2013 and 2014.

Valentino Rossi first joined Yamaha in 2004 and achieved four MotoGP World Champion titles with the Yamaha YZR-M1 in 2004 & 2005 and again in 2008 & 2009. He won 46 Grand Prix races with Yamaha over a 7 year period before leaving at the end of the 2010 MotoGP season.

Rossi, who is presently 8th in the Championship standings, will partner Jorge Lorenzo who currently leads the 2012 MotoGP World Championship by 23 points, having taken five victories from the first ten completed races of the 18 race series.

Lin Jarvis
Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Racing

“This announcement is once again excellent news for Yamaha. In June we were able to sign Jorge Lorenzo for the 2013-14 campaign and now we are able to confirm Valentino Rossi for the next two years. In doing so we have been able to put together the strongest possible team to challenge for victories and to promote the Yamaha brand.

We have run this ‘super team’ together in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and during that time we achieved the ‘triple crown’ titles with Rider, Manufacturer and Team World Championship victories for three consecutive years.

The target for the future is obvious and we will do our utmost to achieve our goals.

I have no doubt that with the experience, knowledge, skills and speed of these two great champion riders we will be able to challenge for many race wins and for the 2013 & 2014 World Championship titles.

The signing of Valentino completes our future planning for the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team. Now that this is done we will put our 100% efforts into completing the job at hand and to supporting Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo in their search for race victories and for Jorge’s 2012 World Championship title challenge.”

Business Standard Motoring.com is carrying an incredible story that the Mini Xylo which Mahindra has been testing and testing and testing and testing (sorry no more) is actually going to be launched with a light weight all aluminium three cylinder diesel engine of 1.5 L capacity and will feature not one but two turbo chargers.  BSM does say that it is not sure if this is actually two turbo chargers or a twin scroll turbo charger and claims that there is evidence that Mahindra had invested in the latter for some time now and could be developing that technology for the XUV 500’s engine as well.

BSM citing a leaked brochure material says that the engine will weigh on 185 kg and will be using a built to a cost fuel injection system from Bosch and will be BSV compliant at the time of launch with just a few tweaks making it possible to meet future BSVI norms with ease as well.  The power is rated at 100 PS and torque at 23 Kgm.  The small SUV will feature a five speed transmission.

Picture courtesy:  Facebook.com/Motor Vikatan and Business Standard Motoring.com

Mini Xylo

The Hyundai Accent was the first sedan that the Korean Chaebol introduced in India immediately after the introduction of the Santro.  While the Santro has seen a few makeovers the Hyundai Accent has continued in almost its original form after missing some of the updates that were carried out on it in other markets.  It was selling so strongly that Hyundai decided to not tamper with it (except that it did introduce the Viva hatchback which for reasons best known to Hyundai was called a notchback).  The next generation of the Accent was introduced as the Verna and both models sold side by side sometimes the older Accent’s sales outstripping those of the newer Verna.  Hyundai to promote the sales of the newer model (the Verna) discontinued the diesel engine version of the Accent and in fact started selling it only with a petrol engine in one trim but still the car refused to go away.  Meanwhile the Verna (which was the replacement of the Accent) was replaced by the next generation fluidic Verna (sold in some markets as the latest Accent) but reasonably good sales of over thousand a month continued with the old Accent.  However in the last one year sales have been dipping and with petrol prices rising and more contemporary models coming in from Hyundai itself not to talk of other manufacturers.  In the month of July, 2012  the Accent sold its lowest ever 182 units and so presumably the writing is clearly on the wall for the old and trusted war horse.  After all nothing lasts forever, not just Cold November Rain, even the Hyundai Accent.  But who knows if it still has a trick up its sleeve?  We wouldn’t bet against it.

The already beleaguered MotoGP series took two big punches this season in its face with Casey Stoner announcing his retirement from the sport while he is in his prime and Ben Spies announcing that he is leaving the Yamaha factory team.  What Ben Spies will do in the future is a mystery as yet but what it has done is that it has blown the silly season open big and wide.

VR1

After signing up with Ducati for 2011 and 2012 Valentino Rossi has struggled to come to terms with the Ducati Desmosedeci and at best has been languishing in the midfield in 2011 and thus far in 2012.  This had led to speculation about Rossi continuing with Ducati but then Rossi has effectively burnt his bridges with Honda when he left them saying that it is the rider that makes the difference to the bike and not the other way round.  He also threw an ultimatum at Yamaha asking them to choose between him and Jorge Lorenzo for 2011 and Yamaha wisely chose to invest in the future and so plumbed in for Lorenzo something that they are quite happy about.  While Rossi himself has ruled out going to Honda since he will have to ride a satellite spec machine in either Gresini Honda or LCR Honda with Honda already having signed Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa for the factory Repsol Honda team.Andrea Dovizioso Tech3 Yamaha Sepang Test MotoGP 01

Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso have been tripping over each other to prove that they are great performers who could take Ben Spies’ place (and this was happening even before Spies had announced his retirement but was doing quite terribly in races due to a combination of bad luck and bad riding) and Andrea Dovizioso has inched a little ahead of Cal Crutchlow who started the season more impressively.  What makes Dovizioso look better than Crutchlow is that he has scored three consecutive podiums for Tech3 Yamaha (a first for that team) and finished fourth in the last race.  But there are question marks about Dovizioso’s ability since he always was a Honda rider and last year he finished third (and a distant third at that) in the three rider Repsol Honda team that also had Stoner and Pedrosa.  Dovizioso has only one victory on the Honda in MotoGP.  This must be something that is acting on Yamaha’s mind.

Cal Crutchlow Motogp

While Crutchlow has shown great aggression this season his last season was nothing to write home about and even this season despite all the promise he is yet to put himself on the podium, thus making him a shaky candidate for the factory Yamaha position.  Queering the pitch is the fact that there is only one position available next year even at Tech3 Yamaha since Herve Poncharal committed the cardinal sin of promising Bradley Smith a MotoGP ride for 2013 without even assessing how the rider would do in Moto2.  The last two seasons in Moto2 have been most unspectacular for Bradley Smith and while rumours of Poncharal trying to wriggle out of his contract with Smith have emerged it does appear as if there are legal and other problems there.

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Let us talk about the other problems since we can.  It has now come to light that Cal Crutchlow had an offer from Ducati for the factory team and he was supposed to sign on the dotted line at Mugello.  Crutchlow was seen as a replacement for Nicky Hayden who was supposed to be going out but the confusion caused by Spies has meant that Yamaha, despite their dislike for Rossi are now seriously considering him due to the fact that they are not very confident of Dovizioso or Crutchlow.  This has made Ducati change tack mid course and they have ended up signing Nicky Hayden thereby hanging Crutchlow out in the open.  In the even of Rossi going to Yamaha, Crutchlow will likely go to Ducati but what of Andrea Dovizioso then?  He has made it clear that satellite spec machinery is not acceptable to him and therefore he will explore other options (whatever they maybe).  But he could be persuaded to stay for one more season at Tech3.

Nicky Hayden

Lin Jarvis the head of Yamaha’s racing department is not inclined to taking Rossi back apparently because Rossi did not deal with Yamaha in a very nice way and also because taking Rossi back would mean that he will come with this entire retinue of Jeremy Burgess and all the mechanics.  But Rossi could have an ace up his sleeve and that would be that he could take sponsorship to the now unsponsored Yamaha team.  Fiat which was sponsoring Yamaha stopped its sponsorship when Rossi went to Ducati.  Another scenario being touted is that Marlboro could be persuaded to ditch Ducati and revive its hey days with Yamaha; something that appears unlikely.  The name of Coca Cola and Monster energy are also being bandied as possible sponsors but the latter already has a strong association with the Tech3 team even if they are Rossi’s personal sponsors.  Coca Cola seems to be a figment of everyone’s imagination with some suggesting that they will sponsor Yamaha as Dr. Pepper’s (one of the many drinks in the Coca Cola portfolio) and this will work since Rossi has long ago nicknamed himself has Rossi.  All this is wild imagination of rumour mongers at work.

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But what is indeed true is that Rossi holds the key to further rider movement in the market.  Team Repsol Honda have their riders in place; Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez.  LCR Honda has its rider in place in the form of Stefan Bradl who has contract for next year.  Team Yamaha Racing has one rider, Jorge Lorenzo in place and Tech3 has one rider, Bradley Smith.  Marlboro Ducati has one rider, Nicky Hayden contracted to them while the fate of the other two Ducati teams, namely Pramac Ducati and Cardion AB Ducati is not clear. Pramac are in financial trouble and Ducati has said that it would prefer to have a junior team a la Tech3 Yamaha and have two riders in it.  But where would the resources for this junior team come from is the question.  Maybe from Audi and if such a team does take shape the riders tipped of for it are Scot Redding and Andre Iannone.  Ionnone being Italian on an Italian bike could bring sponsorship but then the whole of the EU is in doldrums economically.

2012PR Aspar DePuniet Jerez

Then there is also the question of how many of the CRT teams and motorcycles would remain.  Gresini who runs an FTR-Honda CRT for Michele Pirro is not overjoyed at the prospect of yet another season of CRT especially since Pirro is very unhappy on the un-competitive CRT machine.  What of team Blusens and Aspar?  Aspar may continue with the Aprilia ART machines while Forward Racing could shift to ART as well.  Nobody knows what Paul Bird is thinking.  In all this we can see that the CRTs are fringe players and the only rider from that order who can make an appearance on satellite machinery is Randy De  Puniet.  But all movements can start happening once Rossi makes his decision or if Yamaha makes his decision for him.  Rossi has promised that all will be sorted out in this summer break and make his announcement at Indianapolis.  The question is will he?  We foresee protracted negotiations not just with Yamaha but with Ducati as well so the announcement at Indianapolis is not a given by any stretch of imagination.

If you believe what Autocar India.com is saying then the answer to that question is yes.  And there is no reason to doubt the veracity of the claims of Autocar India.com which is a respected publication with established credentials.  Autocar India.com says that the sales of the Civic sedan have fallen drastically in India, making it unviable to continue with the product here. Autocar India.com says that there are a few more CKD kits of the car left and once they are assembled and sold off, the model will cease to exist in the Indian market.

The Civic that sells in India was a smashing looking car that set all kinds of bench marks. It turned out to be such a great car that even Honda have found it impossible to better its appeal with the next generation which has received a lukewarm reception in the markets that it has been launched.  The existing Civic has not aged at all but its sales have taken a nose dive due to the lack of a diesel alternative in the face of rising petrol prices.  All its competitors such as the Toyota Corolla Altis, the Skoda Laura and the Volkswagen Jetta have diesel engines in their arsenal and that is what has made people move away from the Civic it seems.

At Riot Engine we believe that the withdrawal of the Civic will be only for a limited period and it is well known that Honda is working on clean diesel engines for India as well after initially having vowed to stay away from the oil burners and hedging their bets on hybrids. Hybrids have proved to be expensive to make and have therefore found no takers in developing markets like India and Europe has slowly shifted to a preference for diesel given the fact that the calorific efficiency of the fuel is much better than petrol.  Honda has therefore been made to eat humble pie; but we know that the company is all about guts for glory and therefore will make a comeback with diesel engines in its armoury and then perhaps a newer generation of Civic will enter the Indian market.

The Kawasaki Ninja 250 R is a success story for the company and it did not wish to tamper too much with a product that was so successful.  This has meant that for many, many years the only things that changed on the motorcycle were colours and the patterns in which they were painted.  While Asia and Europe did get the fuel injected engine model the carburetted version has been soldiering on in the USA.

01 Kawasaiki Ninja 250r

Now IBN live has brought pictures of the for 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 250 R which will make its debut in Japan.  IBN live has also posted pictures which it claims are from the manufacturer.  When see in the pictures the new Ninja 250 R looks like a scaled down version of the edgy looking Ninja ZX-10 R.  The new 250 R now features a face that is very similar to the bigger ZX-10 R and has vertical slits in the fairing to channel air on to the engine.  Turn indicators which are now of the clear lens variety sit on the edges of the front fairing.  The antiquated dashboard console has been replaced by a more modern looking one and features a speedometer that reads out the speed in digits while the tachometer will continue to have a needle pointing at the number of revs that the engine is making.  The rear of the motorcycle is also now more sculpted with edges and wedges in place.  IBN live says that the engine also has been uprated with newer alloys and materials for the cylinders and camshafts.

02 Kawasaiki Ninja 250r

According to IBN live the Kawasaki 250 R will cost the equivalent of INR 2.34 lakhs when it debuts in Japan.  Torque and horsepower outputs have not been specified as yet.  One also does not know if and when this motorcycle will debut in the Indian market.  Kawasaki has set up an entity called India Kawasaki Motors Ltd., but this entity’s office address, or website or any information is not available.  Everything points to the Bajaj Auto website.  Bajaj has been concentrating on making lower capacity KTM products for the world market and what were previously Bajaj Probiking showrooms have now been re-branded as KTM showrooms throwing open speculation about the nature of relationship between Kawasaki and Bajaj.  It is now well known that Bajaj has a 47+% equity stake in KTM and is therefore more interested in that company.  Thus far there is not much news of the new Kawasaki Ninja 650 (there is no R suffixed in the new model anymore and not 650R as being reported by the Indian automotive press) which has debuted globally elsewhere.

04 Kawasaiki Ninja 250r

Immediately after the Auto Expo 2012 Riot Engine had written an article about the absence of Kawasaki at the Expo and the following months have done little to bring some focus on to the brand and its plans for India.  Given the scenario we are not even sure if India will even get to see the new model Ninja 250 R India.  Even if it does, rest assured that is a loooooooooooooooong way away.

03 Kawasaiki Ninja 250r

Loris Baz, the 19 year old French rider drafted into the works Kawasaki Racing Team following regular rider Joan Lascorz’s crippling crash, has been improving with every passing race.  The youngster who was contracted originally for two races was given an extension of the contract till the end of the year due to the promise he has shown.  Baz has not disappointed Kawasaki and had made onto the podium along with Sykes on one occasion.  But it was at Silverstone that the French rider showed the stuff he is made of when he won the first race of the World Superbikes after the race was red flagged after the first lap and resumed as a wet race.  The rain was not sufficient to put wet tyres and with the exception of two riders everyone went out on dry tyres but towards the end the rain did come down and since this was a wet race it meant that there was no option of another red flag.  As conditions got treacherous Loris Baz showed nerves of steel to hold back BMW Italia riders Michel Fabrizio and Ayrton Badovini and take victory.  The latter two took the second and third places on the podium.

The second race was held in a torrential downpour and the race saw victory for Sylvain Guintoli who now rides for PATA Ducati after severing ties with the Effenbert Liberty Ducati team.  Loris Baz who duelled with Guintoli for much of the race and even held the first position for a while crashed on the lap when the race was red flagged.  The result thus went back to the previous lap on which Baz was in second place and so it was a double podium for Baz at Silverstone.  Third position went to the Ducati of Jakob Smrz.

With the Baz’s win in the first race at Silverstone, Kawasaki has become the only manufacturer to see both its riders taking wins this season thus far. However, all Kawasaki victories have come under wet circumstances.  Tom Sykes who has been the spear head for Kawasaki this season with a spate of pole positions and one win and several podiums did not do well in his home race and could finish only 8th and 12th in the first and second races.  Title protagonists Biaggi, Melandri and Checa did not perform too well either and therefore the points position for the title remains relatively unchanged due to new victors and podium finishers at Silverstone.