The Rinspeed BamBoo - where is Brigette Bardo when you need her.
A surprisingly large chunk of real estate at the annual Geneva Motor Show is dedicated to specialty manufacturers and so-called “tuners,” some reasonably well-known, like Brabus, others likely to put in an appearance and then never be heard from again.
But each Geneva show, Frank Rinderknecht, founder and CEO of Rinspeed Inc., is on hand to present something that is, well, a bit out of the ordinary.
Maybe you remember the E-Go Rocket that was presented in 1998, inspired by the record setting cars of the Bonneville Salt Flats, or the Splash, the sports car that turns into an amphibious vehicle that made it to the ‘Salon’ in 2004.
Then there was the even more extreme 2008 sQuba, a car that could “fly” under water, inspired by the James Bond movie ‘The Spy who loved me.
Now, the small Swiss automobile specialist has created the BamBoo, a speedster designed to remind you of sunny days on St. Tropez, the famous beach resort in the South of France.
The Rinspeed Squba.
The bright and light heartedness of that playground for the rich is represented by BamBoo’s cheery colors, ranging from salmon orange to lobster red.
While the basic design might be a bit retro, there are some futuristic elements, as is typical of every Rinspeed concept. The body has not been painted, but is covered with StickerFix, an unusual material developed by chemical company AkzoNobel, while a communication display replaces the radiator grille.
Too bad, Brigitte Bardot wasn’t around to lounge languorously on the inflatable roof serves double-duty as a beach blanket.
Rinspeed jointly developed the BamBoo with Swiss engineering firms 4erC and Esoro. The roof was engineered by Swiss company Tecnotex and covered with Skai with nano coating which supplied by the Hornschuch Company.
With the Bamboo, Rinderknecht hopes to push the reset button in the head of the observer to open the mind for a new way of automotive thinking.
Maybe another “Cash for Clunkers” program is help the Volt get going? Then again, maybe not. Price is just to high and a family still needs a vehicle if they are to “pull” something. A “Dud” for sure! Seems that the Volt has a “Short Circuit”!
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/03/03/fail-sales-of-government-motors-chevy-volt-plummet-only-281-sold-last-month/
Not sure what data you’re working from, Tater, but so far demand is reasonably strong. Production is in ramp-up, but anyone writing Volt off yet is playing politics and invalidating their argument.
Heck, GE alone has placed an order for 15,000. Both GM and Nissan are ramping up deliveries very slowly. A vehicle like this, let’s wait a minimum 6 months before we start judging. This isn’t the same as launching a Chevy Cruze.
Paul A. Eisenstein
Publisher, TheDetroitBureau.com
Well then someone is BS’ing someone:
http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/fail-sales-of-government-motors-chevy-volt-plummet-%e2%80%94-only-281-sold-last-month%e2%80%a6/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wordpress%2FYHUd+%28Dancing+Czars%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
Tater, I am sorry to see that some folks have become so incredibly politicized that their reporting on GM and Chrysler, in particular, descends to wishful (negative?) thinking. The interesting thing, as media colleague John Voelker noted elsewhere is that Volt is continuing to outsell Nissan’s Leaf by a fair bit. But that, in turn, is meaningless. Both makers are consciously taking time in their production ramp-ups to ensure they don’t launch these vehicles and then discover any variety of quality problems. Remember, there’s a lot of technology new to the industry here. Underscore that I am NOT defending GM, or criticizing Nissan. The simple fact is that the sales numbers are, right now, meaningless, and anyone who says otherwise either doesn’t understand the business or is letting their politics blind them. When I see your quoting dancingczars I notice that the phrase, “government motors” is in their headline. Enough said.
Let’s look at sales numbers in six months for these vehicles. If there isn’t a continuing ramp-up then there’s a problem, but today, I can’t read anything into the numbers.
Paul A. Eisenstein
Publisher, TheDetroitBureau.com
Thanks for the reply!