Vincent Rice

A few days ago deep in the historic Teuteborg Forest of central Germany, the first stone was laid in the construction of an intriguing project. For twenty years until 1993 The 80 hectare (200 acre) site was a massive NATO ammunition depot, supplying the British Army of the Rhine during the Cold War. After eighteen years of disuse and six years of planning the extensive sturdy warehousing and road network is to be converted into the Bilster Berg luxury "drive resort" and automobile testing facility. Considering who's involved, the new racetrack should be a pretty spectacular experience. Read More

The car is not going to disappear anytime soon and neither is the combustion engine, despite the inevitable rise in fuel prices. We have said it before, electrical motors are an energy-efficient method for driving vehicles but battery technology is simply not going to advance quickly enough for all-electric vehicles to be a practical reality for most uses anytime soon. The near and mid-term future is undoubtedly a combination of compact combustion engine generators charging dense battery packs that drive electric motors - the "range extender" option. We reported on one possible candidate, the disc motor, a couple of months ago. Now, after nearly twenty years of development another candidate is going through final testing and it is a work of elegant genius - Dr. Herbert Hüttlin's Kugelmotor. Read More

There are lot of "pod" hotel concepts around. It's one of those things that every young design/architectural practice likes to have a go at for its portfolio. The use-cases for these things are obvious, airports, train stations, exhibition halls, shopping malls, even temporary hostels or emergency shelter. Economic conditions notwithstanding it's a simple fact that we are traveling more and that the time spent waiting around in terminals is getting longer and more unpleasant. The promise of privacy and proper sleep is compelling. One architectural practice that has honed its pod concept into a refined, practical and importantly a patentable reality over a the years is Arch Group of Moscow. The high level of interest shown in the company's first working installation means that it looks like this tenacity will pay off. Read More

It's clear from the styling of the XF and XJ saloons that design chief Ian Callum has been developing and evolving a new design vocabulary for Jaguar that, while it may make an occasional nod to the marque's enviable heritage, looks decisively towards the future. Whilst the two saloons have been well received in terms of value, technology and comfort, there's been a nagging doubt about the coherence of their design. They are not "good-looking" cars. In addition the whole range, including the bonkers-fast and sporty XK, is still seen as older person's transportation. Well, no more. This week Jaguar has delivered a stunning and beautiful "pure" sports car concept that aims to give the mighty Porsche 911 a run for its money. Read More

The famous and well documented Hindenburg disaster of 1937, when the hydrogen-filled airship burst into flames whilst attempting to tether to its moorings in New Jersey, killed off the 'lighter-than-air' aircraft industry, as well as 35 unfortunate souls. Since the 1970's however, a determined band of, mostly British, aviation engineers has been battling to design and build a commercially viable 'air vehicle'. Many false starts, experimental craft and research projects followed (funded mostly by the U.S. military) but viability remained elusive, until now. Read More

Bentley is grateful to the professional sportsmen and rap stars that helped make the original Continental so successful, but as the brand grows and strengthens it needs to appeal to more mainstream markets of the US, Europe and China and these clients need a little more refinement in their boulevard bruiser. The "standard" Continental coupe was significantly updated at the end of last year after nearly eight years in production but the Convertible was always the more beautiful and desirable version and the new 2012 model on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month is no exception. Read More

Revered by many, hated by some, but respected by most, the indisputable fact remains that Steve Jobs is the most successful business leader of his generation and quite possibly of all time. The numbers are impressive in themselves but the most remarkable aspect of his success is how it was achieved. Though he remains at Apple, the end of his tenure as CEO is the end of an era and an opportunity to try and grasp just exactly what it is he did and what lessons there are for all of us "trying to make a dent in the universe." Read More

Since the late 90s, the holy grail of music technology companies like Line 6 and others has been to digitally re-create guitar amplifiers so that hundreds of iconic tones could be stored in one box and used in the studio or live. Unfortunately, the dynamic behavior and feel of a tube amp is an extremely complex system to understand and while many thousands of guitar amp modellers have been sold due to the sheer convenience, they could not be said to be entirely convincing. In September, a new product called the Kemper Profiling Amp will hit the streets that aims to do away with that complexity and within 30 seconds perfectly re-create any guitar amplifier. Read More

A few years ago the very existence of parent company General Motors was hanging in the balance but the Cadillac brand has made a spectacular comeback with an edgy design vocabulary in the CTS line and a seriously powerful headline-grabbing variant in the CTS-V coupe. The house style is sufficiently distinctive and the handling sufficiently sorted (we'll ignore the soon-to-be-killed-off Escalade) that the CTS is attracting buyers in Europe, something notoriously difficult for US car brands. Cadillac is feeling confident and that confidence was evident at Monterey last week where it unveiled a concept convertible that showcases a design direction for the future and its desire to move further upmarket, which of course, is exactly where Cadillac should be. Read More