Month: September 2017

Cars

Maserati and four-wheel drift

Post author By neute-admin
Post date September 23, 2017

The Maserati Ghibli, an exciting combination of luxury and sport driving. An article published on 15 November 2013 on luxos.com

In the corner of the showroom at the Maserati factory in Modena, there is a table set with glasses, and champagne on ice. A man, his steely blue-grey eyes framed by lines on a tanned skin bearing witness to many Los Angeles summers, is celebrating his new Maserati Ghibli. He decided to pick it up directly at the factory, before enjoying it on the twisting European roads for a few weeks with his wife. Only then will he have it shipped back to the States.

This is the only place and occasion where alcohol is allowed at the factory. At Maserati, everything is stringently checked from start to end of the manufacturing process. Twelve percent of the people working there are dedicated uniquely to quality control, and the car spends far more time being inspected than it does on the assembly line. In addition to the checks on every part and every step of construction, the complete car undergoes a 24-stage quality control procedure. Inspection of paintwork is a task entrusted to women, who have proven to be far more skilled than men in assessing the perfection of colour and finish.

One of the reasons why no few customers decide to collect their new car from the factory is because the vehicle is yours from the outset. All the cars on the production line have already been bought, and each is personalized with the many available options of colour, leather, even stitching. The number of permutations possible for a single model run into millions.

The Ghibli is part of Maserati’s ambitious plans to increase its luxury car production from the 2,600 vehicles manufactured in 2012 to the 50,000 forecast for 2015. By then, the range will have been completed, with the addition of the Levante crossover, so Maserati will cover the whole of the luxury market. I drove the Ghibli at a press presentation held in Modena in November 2013.

On the left, Alessandro Vai, who seriously knows how to drive. He writes a blog, L’autocritico

The first thing that you notice when you get in is the high level of finish. There is a subtle fragrance from the leather seats, and a myriad of high-tech comfort features, such as the comprehensive seat adjustment, spacious compartments under the dash, and between driver and passenger. Other details reveal something of the Maserati racing DNA, such as the start button on the door side of the steering wheel. This is a throwback to the heroic racing days when drivers had to sprint to the car, start the engine and set off, and so the start button near the door left the other hand free for the gear lever.

When you’re on the road, another note of comfort is the superb sound-proofing. You can enjoy the massive sound of the Bowers & Wilkins stereo system with concert-hall clarity… but it’s more fun to switch off the music, and switch on the famous Sport button, which opens the exhaust baffles and lets you hear the fantastic Maserati sound, a satisfying rumble when cruising, a high-pitched roar when you’re accelerating with your foot on the floor, and the pops and grumbles on the overrun. Sounds a bit boisterous? No surprise: think of her as an Italian, talking to you…

It’s when you’re on the small winding roads of the Apennine countryside around Modena (or wherever you are) that the car becomes an amazing ride. Change from automatic to manual, harden up the suspension with another button, and use the paddles to handle the 8-speed gearbox. When you take her close to the limit on corners, the grip is incredible. As you go beyond, you can play with her through oversteering slides and four-wheel drift. The degree to which you can do this depends on the model. The Ghibli Q4 has all-wheel drive, with a system that balances torque between front and rear wheels with constant, split-second adjustment. In this case, the system is so efficient that as soon as the rear wheels start to slip, the torque is loaded up front, and the car remains glued to the asphalt. The models available for the Ghibli give you a choice of just how sporty you want your car to be.

The new Ghibli is a revolution in many ways: higher performance, more space, fun to drive. This reflects a whole series of design innovations, such as the relocated fuel tank which provides more room in the boot; an overall reduction of weight, with half the upper body in ultra-light aluminium, and the dashboard cross-beam in magnesium. The various power plants are all best-in-class, and likewise the weight/power ratios. But perhaps the biggest surprise is the diesel version of the Ghibli. This was necessary above all for the European market where petrol prices are higher than in the USA. It is the first diesel car in the history of Maserati, and the engineers have done a respectable job of giving the 275 hp engine the Maserati feel and sound. A special steel exhaust manifold keeps the exhaust gas hot for better turbocharger performance. The sound, of course, is different: deeper, throatier, with the same Sport button to amplify this baritone concert.

One thing that you won’t find in the Ghibli – or in any Maserati – are things like adaptive cruise control. With the top speeds of the Ghibli, there wouldn’t be much point, but above all, the Ghibli is a car for hands-on driving, and not one to be driven in. When you’ve reached your destination, you get out, admire the frameless windows and the bulging fender arches (both directly from the racing DNA), and the temptation to get back on the road is irresistible. The prices of the Ghibli put it into attractive competition with its German rivals, but to be honest, its handling, its looks and its voice give it ‘una marcia in più.’ An extra gear.

Tags Maserati

Writing

Space tourism

Post author By neute-admin
Post date September 20, 2017

The flight to Mars is now boarding at gate 34…

A review of some of the projects designed to take ordinary people into space. This article was published in LUXOS Spain spring/summer 2014, before the crash of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise on 31 October 2014.

“Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball—or go extinct.” Elon Musk has done a great deal to help preserve our planet, by developing sexy electric sports cars with Tesla, solar power technology, and concepts for hyper-efficient mass transport systems. But he is convinced that the human race should have a Plan B, in case of inadvertent destruction of our planet by an asteroid, a miniature black hole or a killer virus, and that this back-up plan could be by colonizing other planets, and in particular Mars.

In 2001, he had the idea of sending an experimental greenhouse to the red planet, containing a miniature ecosystem, but he soon realized that he faced a problem: the lack of viable interplanetary commuter rockets. In 2002 he founded SpaceX, Space Exploration Technologies, to solve the problem. The company won commissions from NASA, and in 2012 its Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The stage is set for manned trips to ISS, and SpaceX has won many other contracts for the launch of satellites and other space missions, principally by virtue of its ability to provide a low price-per-payload ratio. One of the features of SpaceX’s approach is its vertical take-off, vertical landing system that reduces payload but greatly reduces total costs, making commercial space flight more competitive.

Falcon 9 and SES 8 lift off from the SpaceX launch pad at Cape Canaveral

“If you can reduce the cost of a flight to Mars to around half a million dollars, I think enough people would buy a ticket and would move to Mars to be part of creating a new planet, part of a founding team for a new civilization. Even if just one in a million people decided to do that, that’s still 8,000 people. That’s the Mars business model.”

Richard Branson is working on sub-orbital space travel, with his company Virgin Galactic. “This will be a trip like no other. Our spacecraft have been designed so that each of our passengers will have the room and the freedom to enjoy the amazing sensation of weightlessness. Large panoramic windows will allow you to see clearly the curved earth over a hundred kilometres below, and the colours of the fragile atmosphere protecting our valuable planet,” said Branson. His project is based on a rocket, SpaceShip 2, with two pilots and six passengers, carried up to the height of 52 kilometres by a large jet plane, White Knight II. The carrier plane then releases the rocket, whose engines take it up to an altitude of 110 kilometres, therefore in space according to the conventional definition of where space begins, 100 kilometres up. The passengers can enjoy weightlessness for about 6 minutes before having to strap in again for the descent and landing. The whole flight, from take-off to landing, lasts about two and a half hours. Tickets are already on sale, and by June 2013 about 600 people had paid the $20,000 deposit on a total ticket price of $250,000.

It will be an exciting ride. Brian Binnie, who piloted the X-prize-winning flight of SpaceShip 2, described the massive acceleration of the rocket after it detached from the mother ship, pinning him back into the seat, and the tremendous noise as the spaceship powered out of the atmosphere. Then suddenly, the dramatic and absolute silence of space. “At that point, it’s like someone has pulled back a stage curtain for your eyes only, and you’re looking at this black void of space,” said Binnie. It’s a mystery, but you get a sense of its majesty as well. There’s a panorama like you’ve never seen.”

Space XC is another company offering a brief taste of space, with flights in their Lynx Mark II spacecraft, in which there is just one passenger who flies alongside the pilot, and is in constant contact with the action. The cockpit canopy is generously sized for good views of space, and the Earth. Differently to the space shuttle and Virgin Galactic, there are no disposable carrier rockets, or mother ships. The Lynx Mark II is small, relatively light, and so takes off, ascends steeply, breaks the sound barrier after 58 seconds, and reaches Mach 2.9 after 3 minutes. The engines are switched off at an altitude of almost 60 kilometres, and the craft continues moving towards space on a parabolic course, reaching the 100 kilometre mark and remaining in space, weightless, for about five minutes. During the descent, there is a period of about 20 seconds when you will experience 4G, during a pullout manoeuvre to reduce speed. After this, there is a leisurely glide back down to the spaceport in Curaçao or Mojave. The whole flight lasts about an hour. Space XC say that the spacecraft is environmentally friendly, built of lightweight materials and powered by bio-fuels. The rocket engines are designed for over 5,000 flights. Safety is enhanced by the fact that the pilot can turn the rocket engine on again even during the gliding phase of the flight. Tickets cost $100,000, with flights to the 100-kilometre mark planned from late 2015.

There will be a cheaper option to get this privileged view of our planet. World View is working on the idea of using a massive helium balloon to take a capsule gently upwards. No special training is required, and, in the stylishly-appointed capsule for six passengers, you’ll reach the altitude of about 30 kilometres. So technically you’re not in space, and you won’t experience weightlessness, but you’re at the top of the atmosphere, and you’ll see the curvature of the earth, like Felix Baumgartner did in his epic balloon-jump. After a couple of hours, the pilot vents some helium from the balloon, which begins a slow descent. The balloon is then released, and a parawing takes the capsule back down, with a landing on skids. Flights are planned from 2016, at a price of $75,000.

Tags space tourism

Milan

Top 10 unusual sights in Milan

Post author By neute-admin
Post date September 5, 2017

In addition to Milan’s most familiar landmarks, the Duomo, the Castle and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, there are some other less familiar sights that are like clues helping you to fathom the city’s history and culture. Here are 10 of the less familiar, more unusual sights in Milan…

1. A ball that shouldn’t be there but is

The mid-1800s were hectic times for Milan, which at that time was part of the Austrian empire, and in March 1848 the tension between the population and the Austrian garrison exploded into street warfare. The battle lasted just five days, from 18 to 22 March, with the Milanese people inventing all sorts of systems for outwitting the occupants, such as building hot-air balloons to smuggle messages out of the city, enlisting the astronomers in their tower-top observatories to watch the Austrians’ movements, and building mobile barricades that could be rolled along the street. At Corso di Porta Romana 3 there is a remnant from this battle. Look up and you will see a cannonball stuck halfway into the wall, now labelled with a plaque with the date 20 March 1848.

2. Balls that should be there but aren’t

Perhaps a more obvious one. The poor bull in the mosaic floor of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele whose privates are used by all and sundry in the hope of receiving good luck. Find the emblem of Turin under the central dome, place your right heel on the spot, and spin round once clockwise.
The mosaics under the glass dome also have another curious feature, the abbreviation F.E.R.T. that accompanies the emblem of the Savoy family from which the kings of Milan came. The family has distant origins, running at least back to the 10th century, so distant that there are no records of what F.E.R.T. actually means. All suggestions are mere conjectures, such as Frappez, Entrez, Rompez Tout (knock, enter, destroy everything).

3. The man who should be there but isn’t

The guy whose face is missing is Mussolini, shown in a mosaic in Milan’s Central Station, alongside platform 20. It was Mussolini and his regime that gave new impetus to the project for a new station that dated to before the First War, and it was inaugurated in 1931, complete with lots of decorations including this mosaic and various Fascist symbols. Many were removed, many still remain. Just look upwards while you’re walking around inside.

4. The man who shouldn’t be there but is

It’s Mussolini again, on one of the pinnacles of the Cathedral, in a double portrait with King Vittorio Emanuele II. Sculptors were working on statues for the Duomo from the late 1300s right through to the 20th century, and after 3,000 apostles, saints, martyrs, virgin, popes and bishops, they were running out of subjects. It is for this reason that Mussolini won immortality in the most prestigious location in the city. Other unexpected subjects include two boxers, Napoleon, and a host of cats, dogs and other animals. Climb to the rooftop, and when you emerge into the sunlight, turn left, look back northwest and downwards, and search for the double-headed pinnacle.

5. How to set your watch in the Cathedral

While you’re at the Duomo, take a look inside: as soon as you’ve entered the main door, turn right and look up to the vaults in the right-hand nave, and you’ll see a small hole. A ray of light from a hole in the south nave roof descends and reaches the floor, where there is a marble and brass line, with signs of the zodiac along it. It is a massive sundial, and the ray intercepts the line at astronomical noon. Nowadays, you can’t see it operating, with all the arc lights switched on inside, but for decades in the 19th century it was used for regulating the city’s mechanical clocks.

6. Lift up to cloud nine

The lift in the Duomo was built in the 1600s of wood and wicker and was decorated to resemble a cloud. It is still used twice a year, when the bishop of Milan gets in, is hoisted up 40 metres above the altar, and retrieves one of the Cathedral’s most precious possessions, a nail from the Crucifixion. Three days later, he goes up again to take it back. The tradition began because the pilgrims’ devotion for the nail, placed in its lofty position, seemed to be diminishing just because it was so high up, and so in 1576 the archbishop of Milan brought it down for the first time. Aspiring applicants to the position of archbishop are advised to write ‘good head for heights’ in their CV.

7. Nine metres in ninety centimetres

You thought virtual reality was a 21st century discovery? Take a look at the church of San Satiro, hidden away on Via Torino (about 80 metres down from Piazza Duomo, just after Via Speronari) where you’ll discover a Renaissance optical illusion that creates a virtual space nine metres long in a space of just 95 cm. It was designed by architect Donato Bramante in about 1480, and it solved several problems all at once: there wasn’t enough room to build a real apse because a road ran behind, Bramante wanted to build a central plan church with the altar at the centre of four identical transepts, and the clerics wanted the altar in the usual position on the east side. Talk about necessity being the mother of invention…

8. Humerus? Not very

Bones, thousands of them, cloak the walls of a small chapel in the church of San Bernardino alle Ossa, in Piazza Santo Stefano. When the tower of the adjacent church of Santo Stefano collapsed in 1642, they immediately started to dig deeper foundations for the new tower and uncovered lots of bones. You reach the chapel through a narrow corridor on the right after going in, and you’ll see the skulls and long bones incorporated into the Rococo decorations. According to tradition, the bones are of saints and martyrs; it’s more likely that they are just ordinary people who died in the hospital that was nearby in the Middle Ages.

9. Bomb damage

In Piazza della Repubblica, you can still see signs of the three air-raids in August 1943 that helped persuade Italy to sign an armistice with the Allies. The shrapnel from the bombs punched holes through the lamp-post, which has remained in position ever since. Probably the least fêted war memorial in the world.

10. When walls have ears

This sculpture is on a building in Via Serbelloni 10, named ‘Ca’ de l’oreggia’ (‘Ear House’ in Milanese dialect), right next to the front door. Made in bronze and complete with some tufts of curly hair above, it was installed in the mid-1920s as a housephone, and a pipe led from the ear to the porter’s office. When it was working visitors actually had to announce themselves into this giant ear, about 70 cm high. Even though the housephone is no longer in use, it has been retained in its position on the façade, in part because it was created by celebrated sculptor Adolfo Wildt.

Tags milan, tourism