Psark Cabin

Fjällhus, a cabin by Stockholm’s PS Arkitektur

Nice cabin design. Thanks to MoCo Loco for surfacing it.

World Circadian Rhythms

The air traffic ballet and the pattern of daylight and night. The sun doesn’t quite set in the extreme north, doesn’t quite rise in the extreme south.

Which means that it must be summer north of the equator.

Enjoy.

Grille Overkill

In response to overwhelming requests for my take on the cars on display in Detroit’s Cobo Hall, a few thought based on available photos.

Overall impression: less than meets the eye. A year of transition; 2010 is already history.

High Intrigue Factor:
Volkswagen BlueSport — clean design all round, especially the front (compare to most cars afflicted with grille statements). Best little car since original Miata.

Cadillac Converj — despite the fawning and the Lutz love, the car makes design sense, especially from the side.

Subaru Legacy — Tokeeyokee by Night! It’s goofy enough to be wonderful. Too many detail lines, big 1960s glasshouse, a Jerry Lewis buck-tooth smile. And wheels that fill up the faux-Mercedes arches.

Meh
Just about anything with a metastasizing grille, including the Fisker Karma:
Why oh why would anyone model a grille on the rictus worn by Jack Nicholson as the Joker?

Lincoln MKT — fire designer immediately.

Lincoln C — not to pick on the car named for my favorite president, but what makes them think that the Renault Vel Satis will do any better on this side of the herring pond?

Volvo S60 Concept — 70s color; at least the designer thinks that Volvo will be sold to Peugeot.

Also-ran meh — Audi Sportback, Caddy SRX, Mercedes E-Class, Taurus, BMW Z4 (actually, the spermatoid Z4 doesn’t rank meh. Bleh is more like it).

Ford quickly showed the nice new Fiesta. Good car, good color. I still think Ford stock is a buy, even at double my original recommendation price.

Ford Fiesta

Simplify, simplify

Detroit’s Auto Show is chockablock with transformation, mostly electric, including a newer, bigger, and uglier Prius (not to mention its reskinned and repriced Lexus brother, the HS250h):

And the Honda Insight, which simplifies the hybrid thing and lowers the price:

There’s also news about plug-ins, including Chevy’s $40,000 Volt, a Cadillac that uses the same power source, and a Ford Escape that eats electrons instead of carbon rings.

Reader ASR sends a WSJ article about destroying barriers to entry, in this case by evolving from internal combustion to electric automobiles.

Wang Chuanfu, a 42-year old Chinese entrepreneur (and the world’s second-largest producer of lithium-ion batteries) is taking advantage of technology change and new realities to introduce a $22,000, Corolla-sized car, the e6, that takes advantage of the new simplicity:

Indeed, BYD’s all-electric e6, has just two motors (45 parts each), one powering the front axle and the other the rear, and two gearboxes (60 parts each) to go with each of the motors. That means the whole system has 210 primary parts, excluding nuts and bolts. In comparison, BYD’s F6, a gasoline-fueled vehicle, has a total of 1,400 powertrain parts: a V6 engine composed of 840 parts and a transmission with 560 parts.

Fuel for thought.

Image

Wally Schirra, 4-time astronaut. Thanks to reader GER for corrections.

GM Garage Sale

1960 Chevy Impala hardtop

Cash-strapped GM is auctioning some of its lesser treasures. Many of us are challenged by the auto industry; even if we want to buy American, what is available to quicken the pulse? Here’s a bunch of interesting choices (from Business Week Online), many at pretty reasonable estimated prices.

Scroll down and take a look at some out-of-the-box Body-by-Fisher iron. Let me know what you’d buy if you had the requisite garage and wallet.

For me? I like the Impala, but I’d take a run at the Aveo Xtreme. I’m just a rice rocket kind of guy.