Welcome everyone, to this week’s instalment of Fast News Friday – Foxtrot Papa’s weekly round up of automotive news and branded content. Summarised below are five stories that caught our attention this week, including details of a handsome new Nissan sports coupe, an announcement from Polestar about being transparent around sustainability and a short but punchy film from Mercedes featuring the ‘built to last’ G-Class.
Polestar – Being transparent about sustainability
This week, Polestar announced that it is launching a movement for transparency throughout the automotive industry. By promoting supply chain traceability, the brand feels it can essentially avoid human rights violations and environmental damage through various types of mining. In addition, the brand is keen to communicate openly about the true environmental impact of the entire life cycle of electric cars, from production to end-of-life. Interestingly, in the link, Polestar compares the lifetime CO2e footprint of a conventionally fueled Volvo XC40 with its latest product the Polestar 2… with some intriguing results.
This bright yellow sports coupe from Nissan has been popping up everywhere online this week. Due to replace the ageing 370Z, which was launched over 10 years ago back in 2009, the Nissan Z Proto promises V6 twin-turbo power and a manual gearbox. Fans of the original Datsun 240Z will notice lots of retro styling cues in the pre-production prototype but those in the UK will be saddened to learn that it will not be offered in Europe. Instead, enjoy these striking press images and drink in all those wonderful styling cues.
The Tyre Collective wins James Dyson award
A group of ‘Innovation Design Engineering’ students from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art have developed a device that collects microscopic particles of rubber from moving car tyres. These particles, according to Top Gear, are hugely damaging to our health and the environment, finding their way into our waterways and ultimately, food supply. They even hang in the air and can be inhaled by pedestrians or passers-by. This week, the group collected a James Dyson design award for their efforts – take a bow guys!
The G-Class: Not everything is built to last
This new short film from Mercedes Benz, promoting the build quality of its legendary G-Class 4×4, caught our attention this week for its pure simplicity. Featuring a lady who’s stopped at a roadside shop to buy milk, she applies too much force when closing the glass refrigerator door and to her surprise, it smashes. The next sequence then shows the same lady, a proud G-Class owner, nonchalantly slamming her rear tailgate shut and confidently driving away – followed by the tag line. Clearly, Mercedes believe the G-Class appeals to buyers who believe toughness and a heavy duty approach is how cars should be. End of? Maybe, but perhaps the planned message was slightly different? Perhaps Mercedes is saying something more profound, such as: ‘strong people buy strong cars’?
With the 88th Le Mans 24 Hours race scheduled for this weekend, McLaren’s Special Operation division has released details of five McLaren Senna GTRs to commemorate the five McLaren F1 GTRs that raced in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. McLaren won the race outright on its first outing, with the other four cars finishing third, fourth, fifth and 13th. Commissioned by their owners in a group, the liveries on the cars are not computer generated graphics, oh no, the five Senna GTRs feature accurately re-created liveries that were hand-painted on every one of the cars. McLaren claims each car took approximately 800 hours to paint! Under the (very detailed) skin, each car has been fettled to give the car’s 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 a small power boost from 814 horsepower to 833 horsepower. According to Autoblog, all five owners will be allowed to take a lap of Circuit de la Sarthe on the day of next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Sweet.