The Otto Club

The world is a busy place, and sometimes folks just don't have time to research their next car purchase — especially when their cars are like this. The Otto Club ($13500 - $35000) is a Boston-based club that offers members the chance to drive some of the world's greatest rides. Pricing is based on a points system, with the Red level offering 15,000 points — about 20-30 days of driving for $13,500. The Black level, $19,500 per year, offers 30,000 points, or around 40-60 days of driving. Cars available include the Lamborghini Murcielago, the Ferrari 430 Coupe, and Bentley Continental GT. Unfortunately, the service is currently only available in the Boston area (they have a clubhouse opening soon in downtown), but we spoke with the company's president and he assured us that the company does plan to expand in the future. Right now though, if you're in Boston and have both the means and a love of cars, check it out.

BMW 335IS Coupe 2010

BMW 335IS Coupe


BMW 335IS Coupe


BMW 335IS Coupe

Challenge on the Next City

GEM e2 electric cars – under $10k.

One of our readers points out that cutting carbon footprint at home, getting rid of the car, and emphasizing walkability is all well and good if you’re mobile, but what if walking is a problem? Sit home and mope?

While talking about automated mobility may be a slippery slope in the next city, let’s take a look at what’s out there. Actually we are now beginning to see the production of quite an array of electric vehicles for the next city (and without a $25 billion federal subsidy…).

We have many qualms. Though some are very inexpensive, small, and light, they are certainly not built with sustainable materials in sustainable ways – and none of the manufacturers is touting the cradle-to-cradle nature of their production (recycled, recylable, renewable) – but it strikes us as better than a Hummer, by some margin.

Electric Smart car. Just another car in a smaller package, or a new way of thinking? $35k.

Our favorites are the littlest, the lightest, and smallest. Kind of like golf carts that are enclosed. These are the ones that allow for local urban mobility without pretending that we can commute for two hours one-way, or make a weekend run from DC to Boston. For that, in the next city, we’ll need something else – not cars – like trains. If the next city is to be about people, and local life, and neighborhoods, and sustainability, and not cars and all their attendant destruction, then thinking really small seems like the only way at all.

Startlab’s Open Street model. A bit more than $22k.

There is one available soon, supposedly, called the Tesla. Hard to suppress a laugh at that name… Anyway, the manufacturers claim over 200 miles between charges and a top speed of 125 mph. Cost is north of $110 grand. This sounds more like substitution than rethinking – greenwashing if you will. Here we can see what we can do, but not necessarily what we should do.

Tesla: 0 to 60 in just over 3 seconds, top speed 125 mph.

Anyway, dear reader, there are options for those with mobility challenges, options that permit participation in the next urban life without pumping breathtaking amounts of carbon into the air. In the end though, these little electric devices need to be coupled with a new way of making our communities – destinations within your neighborhood that are just a few blocks away, not across town or out in the suburbs. For many, even city dwellers in most cities in this country, walking a half mile or a mile doesn’t get you to the garlic you need, or the trattoria where you want to be. This must be the highest priority as we reshape the places where we live and work. Mr. Kamen, we need a two-door Segway with wipers and a heater, please.

Myers Motors NMG (no more gas) one seat electric car – a tricycle. $30k.

Sport Car Pictures

A private Vehicle is a transport to do any activities. But a vehicle can be tool to fight in racing arena are like car pictures above. Before, they could be ordinary car on street. With a good modification by a car designer, those cars become sport cars that will be ready to come in racing car arena.

2011 Seat IBE Coupe Concept

Now, you can see photos of Seat IBE Coupe Concept showed at Paris Motor Show. Improvements over the first Seat IBE Concept, which was shown in Geneva earlier this year, include refinements to the design and technology, while the Paris Show car now also sports an interior.

Both exterior and interior are characterised by their focus on key elements, by a clear and precise architecture, by modern technology and by materials that are as high-quality as they are ecological.

Come with measuring in at just 3.83 meters (12.5 ft) in length, it is smaller than Volkswagen’s Scirocco. Utilizing a 75 kw (102 hp) electric drive system, the concept is good for 130 km (81 miles) on a single charge. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 60 mph) can be achieved in 9.7 seconds.

While its exterior design has been tweaked with a restyled lower fascia and new LED headlamps and tail lights. Furthermore, the car is now finished in a more eye-catching cherry-red color.

FIAT Bugster – environmentally friendly fun

While most cars designed to protect the environment look, at best, well-meaning, at worst, plain dull, the FIAT Bugster is designed to make saving the planet outrageous fun.

As might be expected when a group of Brazilians and Italians, two countries not renowned for their wall-flower tendencies, got together to produce a car under the “Environment and Fun” banner they came up with the FIAT Bugster – an all electric off-road car designed to be charged at home.

But, for a technical first, the Bugster is not so much mid-engined, as mid-batteried. The 93 Lithium-Ion batteries, being the heaviest part of the drivetrain, have been mounted in the middle of the car to provide optimum weight distribution to achieve the best level of handling and roadholding – issues that usually don’t trouble the minds of people designing hybrids and electric cars.

To make the most of its 59 kW and 220 Nm of torque, the electric engine is mated to the same Dualogic sequential manual gearbox as used in the FIAT Punto, so as to provide a sporty response and yet more fun.

Beyond the engine and the bright green paint there are many more ingenious ideas – the tools in the tool kit are made from recycled plastic reinforced with natural sisal fibres; the seats are made from foam produced with 30 per cent recycled soya bean oil and body panels use clay that had been modified by nanotechnology to make it suitable for car bodywork use.

Entirely built by FIAT’s Brazilian division, the Bugster makes its world debut this week (30 October 2008) at the Sao Paulo Motor Show and is the latest in FIAT’s long history of environmental advanced cars. FIAT, for example, produce for the Latin American market the first car to be able to run on four different fuels, the FIAT Siena Tetrafuel, which uses pure ethanol, a petrol/ethanol blend, pure petrol or compressed natural gas.

Not only is this unique car capable of running on each of the four fuels, it automatically switches to whichever energy source is most suitable for the driving demands being placed on it.

Original Batmobile Spotted at Car Wash?

It’s no secret that Southern California is home to one of the best car cultures in the world. You can find a cruise or car show pretty much any day of the year, and it’s always amazing to see the vehicles that show up. It’s even incredible to see the kinds of cars that are simply out and about performing normal, everyday tasks. In addition to the usual Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches, you can sometimes catch some truly unique cars out in the wild.

Take, for instance, this original Batmobile that was out getting a wash and wax at the Car Spa in Newport Beach this weekend. It’s the fourth of four original Batmobiles built by George Barris back in 1966 and is known as the “dragster” version because of its 427ci Holman and Moody V8 under the hood and dual parachutes attached to the rear. The car was built to serve as an exhibition model and actually raced at several drag strips around the country back in the 1960’s. It also comes with a working saw blade that drops down at the front and can actually shoot flames out the back. We tip our hats to the fine gentleman that actually drives this thing on the street.