TAG Heuer Launches Limited Edition Grand Carrera Singapore Watch

In celebration of the first ever Formula 1 night race at Singapore that saw Fernando Alonso taking his first win of the season for Renault, TAG Heuer created a commemorative Grand Carrera watch that will be produced in a limited run of 150 pieces, all of which will be exclusively available at TAG Heuer boutiques and Grand Carrera authorized retailers in Singapore only. -Continued

To be precise, there are only 149 watches left as the Limited Edition Grand Carrera Singapore timepiece numbered 1 of 150 that was autographed by TAG Heuer ambassador and defending world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, was auctioned at the MILK (Mainly I Love Kids) Charity Gala at Shangri-La Hotel on the same night for S$40,000 or about US$ 28,000.

Toyota Develops World’s first Rear Window Airbag

You knew it was coming, meaning it’s been a while since we last heard of an automaker announcing a new type of airbag. The latest ‘revolution’ in the airbag biz comes from Toyota that has developed the world's first rear window curtain shield airbag that’s supposed to protect rear passengers' heads in the event of a rear-end collision. We thought that was supposed to happen by the headrests but evidently the Japanese carmaker believes the protection provided is not enough. -Continued

The new airbag deploys from the roof lining above the rear window in the form of a curtain-like barrier and according to Toyota, together with the headrests, it minimizes impact to the head from a colliding vehicle or parts of the hit vehicle. The rear-window airbag will make its debut on the soon-to-be launched "iQ" minicar.

The intent behind airbags is to save your life which is of course a good thing, but we’re getting a feeling lately that automakers are seeing airbags as more of a marketing gimmick than a safety measure.

Audi R8 Themed Catamaran

Why on earth would someone design a speedboat inspired from the Audi R8? Well, if we didn’t know better, we’d say that the catamaran’s designer probably wanted to style cars but instead ended up in the shipping business as the R8 Catamaran is Bo Zolland’s second automobile-inspired speedboat after the 1963 Corvette Stingray lookalike catamaran (see here). -Continued

According to the Swedish designer, the 8.8 meter long R8 speedboat has been designed to use a V10 biodiesel marine engine or two smaller 320 HP diesel units helping it to achieve a theoretical top speed of 110 MPH.

Link: Vizualtech

Porsche Design P’9522 Cell Phone Hits the Euro Market

The all-new P’9522 is the result of yet another team-up between French cell-phone maker Sagem and Porsche Design. Even though its styling looks the product of a one-night stand between a Sony-Ericcson candybar and an iPhone, overall, the iPorsche err, we mean the P’9522 is pretty good looking. The candybar which is carved from an aluminum block also comes equipped with decent features like a 5 Megapixels digital camera, a large 2.8-inch touch screen, GPS, a WiFi connector and even a MicroSD fingerprint reader that allows users to be authenticated by fingerprints. -Continued

Oddly enough, the Sagem-developed P’9522 doesn’t come with 3G support but we doubt anyone will care. The Porsche-branded cell phone is expected to go on sale in France in November with other markets following shortly after. Justifying its Porsche name, the P’9522 will be priced in France at €600 or about $865 US.

Citroen’s Gran Turismo Video Game Concept

Following an earlier announcement this year at the Geneva Show when Citroen made it official that it will work with Polyphony Digital to develop a concept car for the Sony Playstation Gran Turismo video game, the French automaker has now begun releasing teaser shots of the sports car. Aside from the three teaser photos and video which you can check out after the jump, French car magazine Auto Journal hosts a new upskirt image of the Citroen GT on the cover of its latest issue. It’s not much but we guess it’ll have to do until Citroen officially reveals the GT at the Paris Show next week. -Continued

Via: Le Blog Auto

Dream Exhibition in Torino – A Car Aficionado’s Paradise

“Dream” is an Italian exhibition about production vehicles and concept cars that were designed by automobile companies, coachbuilders and freelance studios located in and around the historic city of Torino from the 1950s to today. The show opened its gates to the public on September 19 and it will run until November 23, 2008 at the Giovanni Agnelli’s Pavilion in Torino. According to the organizers, the exhibition that is dedicated to the memory of the late Andrea Pininfarin, hosts 54 one-off examples and hundreds of design objects including scale models, sketches, drawings and various projects. -Continued

Historical exhibitions at the Dream Show include the Ghia Gilda Streamline X Coupe, the Pininfarina Modulo and the more modern Maserati Birdcage concept. As for the BMW ZX6 concept you see in the picture below, it was designed by third year students of the Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin (IED), Jai-Ho Yoo and Lukas Vanek in collaboration with the Bavarian automaker. According to IED, the concept was selected by the Organizing Committee as the exhibition’s primary communication picture.

New Mercedes-Benz S-600 Pullman Guard State Limo

In celebration of its special-protection unit’s 80th anniversary, Mercedes-Benz has launched the new S600 Pullman Guard state limousine for those officials who like to feel a bit of extra security. Based on a the S600 Guard, the Pullman has been stretched out to a total length of 6,356 mm with a 4,315 mm wheelbase that’s about the size of a compact hatchback. Power comes from twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V12 engine developing 517 and 830 Nm of torque. -Continued

Mercedes-Benz’s special-protection unit has fortified the S600 Pullman Guard to withstands attacks from a variety of weapons including military-standard small-arms projectiles. It also provides protection against fragments from hand grenades and other explosive charges. Additional safety features include run-flat tires, a self-sealing fuel tank and a fire-extinguishing system.

Abarth Gears Up with New Apparel Line

At the beginning of July, Abarth signed a license agreement with Basic Net, owner of Kappa, Robe di Kappa, Superga and K-way brands for the production and sale of Abarth labeled products. Now the Italian automaker has announced that it will reveal its first collection of Kappa apparels at the Paris motorshow in October. The initial lineup will include jackets and long-sleeve t-shirts with sales expected to start in Europe in a few weeks time. -Continued

Bentley’s $20,000 Laptop: Limited to just 250 Pieces Worldwide

Trying to find a way to spend around 20 grand on a gadget that gives the term ‘overpriced’ a new meaning? Then you should take a look at Ego Lifestyle’s Bentley-branded notebook. No more than 250 pieces will be retailed globally in high-end stores from autumn 2008 each priced at £10,000 which amount to €12,500 or $19,800 US. So what’s so special about this laptop? Well, aside from the Bentley logo and the hand-made casing that resembles an oversized female purse, nothing really. -Continued

Even the notebook’s specs aren’t of any interest. A few years back, a 64-bit processor and a 160Gb Hard drive might have impressed but not today. Maybe we’re missing something here but we can’t find one single thing on the ‘Ego by Bentley’ that could justify its price.

2008 Peugeot Design Competition - The 10 Finalists

Peugeot’s 5th Design Competition has entered its last phase as the jury picked out the 10 finalists from a total of 2,500 projects that were submitted from designers of over 95 nationalities. The winning project will be announced on 2nd October 2008 at the Peugeot’s Paris Motor Show stand by the company’s CEO Mr Jean-Philippe Collin. The winner, who will see his project produced as a 1/1 scale model for the Shanghai Motor Show in the spring of 2009 will also receive a cheque for €10,000. -Continued

This year’s competition asked designers to create a concept car for use in the centre of the great urban cities of the future, while embracing the key values of the 21st century and at the same time, bearing all of Peugeot’s styling clues.

GALapagos by Igor Yastrebov from Romania – 21 years old

Peugeot 888 by Oskar Johansen from Norway – 34 years old

Rugir by Onur Güvenc from Germany – 26 years old

P.R.O. by Ke Guo from China – 21 years old

OXO by Lou Ke from China – 22 years old

Ego by Emre Yazici from Turkey – 45 years old

RD by Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar from Colombia – 25 years old

Seed Peugeot by Yann Terrer from France – 28 years old

Vision by Shinji Numuki from Japan – 33 years old

MoVille by Woo-Ram Lee from France – 22 years old