OH MY GOD...this nice
05-26-2003, 02:05 AM
#16
Blecch!
Gemballa makes some good kit, but this is a joke!
This design turns the Cayenne into even more of a mini-van and cuts down the approach, departure and ramp-over angles while putting lots of expensive, delicate, painted plastic in harms way for any off-road driving.
It also simply seems to offer zero advantages. If it really created down-force or even reduced lift, well, great, but this design just makes it look even more slab-sided.
I wonder how long it will be before a serious tuner develops a kit capable of extending and retracting to create positive ground effects and improved down-force at speed.
I noticed that VW had arranged the design of the roof racks to form a "wing" of sorts (when pushed together at the rear of the roof line) and it seems like a great idea (if it works, otherwise, it's a nice aesthetic doodle) and surely any SUV suffers horribly from aerodynamic troubles.
This is one of many "why didn't they?" questions I had with the first appearances of the Cayenne -- for example, for more than a decade, Porsche has put an automatically deployed, motorised wing on the rear of the Carrera; why didn't they put a wing on the rear of the Cayenne? If they did it (a bit like the Range Rover) they could have hidden the rear wiper under it, leaving the rear more sleek and curvacious, and then had a little ballet at the rear so that the wing would deploy and the rear wiper actuate in syncronous.
Instead, like almost all SUVS, the rear of the car gets dirty for lack of a spoiler and there's a wiper just sitting there in the middle of the body. It says "why bother trying to make this thing look good?" to me. In stark contrast, Range Rover hides the wiper, includes an air-flow diffuser in the design (that helps keep the rear window clear, if not completely) and at least they've designed something purposefully rather than resigning themselves to production costs and "same same" design.
Gemballa makes some good kit, but this is a joke!
This design turns the Cayenne into even more of a mini-van and cuts down the approach, departure and ramp-over angles while putting lots of expensive, delicate, painted plastic in harms way for any off-road driving.
It also simply seems to offer zero advantages. If it really created down-force or even reduced lift, well, great, but this design just makes it look even more slab-sided.
I wonder how long it will be before a serious tuner develops a kit capable of extending and retracting to create positive ground effects and improved down-force at speed.
I noticed that VW had arranged the design of the roof racks to form a "wing" of sorts (when pushed together at the rear of the roof line) and it seems like a great idea (if it works, otherwise, it's a nice aesthetic doodle) and surely any SUV suffers horribly from aerodynamic troubles.
This is one of many "why didn't they?" questions I had with the first appearances of the Cayenne -- for example, for more than a decade, Porsche has put an automatically deployed, motorised wing on the rear of the Carrera; why didn't they put a wing on the rear of the Cayenne? If they did it (a bit like the Range Rover) they could have hidden the rear wiper under it, leaving the rear more sleek and curvacious, and then had a little ballet at the rear so that the wing would deploy and the rear wiper actuate in syncronous.
Instead, like almost all SUVS, the rear of the car gets dirty for lack of a spoiler and there's a wiper just sitting there in the middle of the body. It says "why bother trying to make this thing look good?" to me. In stark contrast, Range Rover hides the wiper, includes an air-flow diffuser in the design (that helps keep the rear window clear, if not completely) and at least they've designed something purposefully rather than resigning themselves to production costs and "same same" design.
05-26-2003, 02:39 AM
#17
Racer
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Range Rover keeping the rear window clear. hahahahah woah while I pick myself up off the floor...
My '03 has a great talent at getting the entire rear end completely covered in dirt, including window. I am beginning to suspect the engineers spent endless hours perfecting just that feature. An amazing accomplishment IMHO. As a reference point my old Suburban never had that issue.
Otherwise the Rover is the best car I have ever driven.
My '03 has a great talent at getting the entire rear end completely covered in dirt, including window. I am beginning to suspect the engineers spent endless hours perfecting just that feature. An amazing accomplishment IMHO. As a reference point my old Suburban never had that issue.
Otherwise the Rover is the best car I have ever driven.
05-26-2003, 07:44 PM
#19
Burning Brakes
I thought I would show you a GOOD example of what Gemballa is capable of:
<img src="http://members.rennlist.com/kpv/gemballa-1.jpg" alt=" - " />
And another, often overlooked vehicle that I am currently driving until I can buy a Cayenne with a manual transmission.
<img src="http://members.rennlist.com/kpv/vehicross-2.jpg" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://members.rennlist.com/kpv/gemballa-1.jpg" alt=" - " />
And another, often overlooked vehicle that I am currently driving until I can buy a Cayenne with a manual transmission.
<img src="http://members.rennlist.com/kpv/vehicross-2.jpg" alt=" - " />
05-27-2003, 09:57 PM
#21
Instructor
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</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by cmoss:
<strong>Why would anyone spend so much on something that needs fixing out of the box? <img border="0" alt="[icon107]" title="" src="graemlins/icon107.gif" />
Cheers,
Chris</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Like what, an old 993?
<strong>Why would anyone spend so much on something that needs fixing out of the box? <img border="0" alt="[icon107]" title="" src="graemlins/icon107.gif" />
Cheers,
Chris</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Like what, an old 993?
05-31-2003, 06:21 AM
#23
So what's that Vehi-Cross thingy like?
When they came out the dealers were so excited I couldn't even drive it and then they suddenly became practically non-existent because the dealers couldn't sell them and wouldn't bring one into the dealership because they thought it would never sell -- talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. I called several dealers (there aren't that many around here) and each time, I had the same insane conversation:
me: "hi, I think I could buy that vehi-cross thing, but it's really bizarre, so I'd need to play with it and drive it to see if it makes sense"
them: "well, we don't have one, but if you order it, you'll have to buy it, no cancellations"
me: "you didn't listen -- I said I don't want to order it, but I think it would work for me, I just need to see it and drive it"
them: "sorry, no can do"
me: "why not?"
them: "we don't keep that car on the lot"
me: "why not?"
them: "nobody wants it"
me: "how would you know?"
them: "because we never sell any"
me: "click"
So I gave up on it, it was too funky by far and very small. Pity, really.
ps. the '01 Rangie can drive all day at speed on dust without losing visibility through the rear window ... I guess they lost that design in the '03 "new range rover" make-over
When they came out the dealers were so excited I couldn't even drive it and then they suddenly became practically non-existent because the dealers couldn't sell them and wouldn't bring one into the dealership because they thought it would never sell -- talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. I called several dealers (there aren't that many around here) and each time, I had the same insane conversation:
me: "hi, I think I could buy that vehi-cross thing, but it's really bizarre, so I'd need to play with it and drive it to see if it makes sense"
them: "well, we don't have one, but if you order it, you'll have to buy it, no cancellations"
me: "you didn't listen -- I said I don't want to order it, but I think it would work for me, I just need to see it and drive it"
them: "sorry, no can do"
me: "why not?"
them: "we don't keep that car on the lot"
me: "why not?"
them: "nobody wants it"
me: "how would you know?"
them: "because we never sell any"
me: "click"
So I gave up on it, it was too funky by far and very small. Pity, really.
ps. the '01 Rangie can drive all day at speed on dust without losing visibility through the rear window ... I guess they lost that design in the '03 "new range rover" make-over
05-31-2003, 04:12 PM
#25
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Carrera GT, know what you mean. I actually test drove one in L.A. when they came. I like the off-beat looks and the theoretical performance. When I test drove it, it drove and handled very truck-like and I couldn't warm up to the engine sound at all. Rear visibility was also quite abysmal.
06-02-2003, 10:15 AM
#27
What's the point in designing a car with high ground clearance for off road use and then spending thousands "slamming" it and putting on giga-expensive tires and wheels that are not even any good on the highway in inclement conditions? Some rice-boys have more money than others I guess....
06-03-2003, 07:31 PM
#28
Burning Brakes
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Reinhardt:
<strong>UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!! Hope it's not real!</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Well it ain't real. It's foto shopped.
<strong>UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!! Hope it's not real!</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Well it ain't real. It's foto shopped.