Interview with Kim L. Palmer: Discovery 4's Trip to Chernobyl

Last week I have attended the Jaguar Land Rover’s PR event and guess who I met? Kim Lawrence Palmer (Senior Press Office at Land Rover), one of the team members of Journey of Discovery from Birmingham to Beijing, however he attended to stage where they visited Chernobyl!

One day ago, I wrote about the 1.000.000thDiscovery 4’s journey to Chernobyl and I was thinking, is it possible to meet someone from the team? And it happened! So, I took this opportunity with Kim and did an interview.

We talked about the Chernobyl, what he saw, how he felt and details of the journey. Probably I will never have chance to meet with someone who visited the Chernobyl.

And thank you very much Kim to take time for the interview during the tight schedule.

Here is the interview!

Journey of Discovery is a fund raising project and here is the information.

The Journey of Discovery expedition aims to raise £1,000,000 (GBP) for Land Rover's Global Humanitarian Partner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The money will be used to support a much needed water sanitation project in Uganda(www.landrover.com/million).

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Land Rover

Interview with Gavin Ward (BMW UK)

Today I visited the BMW UK Head Office for an interview with the PR Manager, Gavin Ward. Before I started, I want to mention one thing. If you are a real BMW enthusiast, you will love their parking space. There is only one car existing, and it is BMW. I have been to many car companies but I have never seen this type of fleet.

Since now, I did couple of interview and additionally I met with many PR managers from automotive industry. Most of them have similar working experience, the most exceptional ones have an engineering degree and moved to PR business. However, Gavin has an extra ordinary background! He has a journalism background, there is nothing unusual with this. But, he was war correspondent during the Kosovo war. Being a journalist during a war is probably one of the hardest jobs on earth. You need to search for news, then prepare it, send it and at the same time try to save your life. I think he is the calmest PR manager in this business, whatever happen cannot be as tough as those years.

This interview also was an opportunity for me to ask two questions that are inside my mind for last fifteen years! Why BMW never revealed a M7 and what happened to 8-Series. You will find the answers during the interview. Also, we talked about the Brutus. A car powered by an air plane engine. And explained why it was made!

I cannot skip the social media, he emphasised on the critical points of social media. BMW has one of the biggest fan communities in automotive industry and these fans can be their customers. Therefore, it places BMW brand into a different position. Ferrari might have more fans than BMW but, there is a little opportunity for fans to own a Ferrari. That’s the diversifying character of BMW community, a fan can be a customer. Therefore, I was curious how the social media has influence on the sales figures of BMW.

As usual, I asked what car he drives :) And I spotted a Bond car, BMW Z8!

And lastly, if you spot a BMW prototype on British roads don't be shocked!

For more photos: Cars & Life Facebook Page

Interview with Rob Halloway (Mercedes-Benz UK)

Today’s interview is with Rob Halloway, PR Manager of Mercedes-Benz UK. He is the person responsible for the passenger and commercial vehicles, and one of the most active Twitter users from the automotive industry. We know each other through the Twitter and the MIPAA.

From the beginning, Mercedes-Benz did a great hospitality for me. They picked me up from the train station with a Mercedes C350 Coupe. It was a fully loaded vehicle with everything, radar guided cruise control, blind spot system, traffic sign recognition, and ventilated seats! Five-star transportation.

Mercedes-Benz HQ is always amazing place for someone, who likes cars. They have many different types of vehicles in one place, from trucks to AMG high performance vehicles. Actually, my best piece was Lego Unimog that has more than one thousand parts and takes around at least six hours to build it!

With Rob, we talked about the new Mercedes vehicles. In 2011 and 2012 Mercedes revealed many new vehicles; SLK, CLS, SL, M-Class, B-Class and Actros truck. He summarised each vehicles’ unique feature and explained the new crash prevention system in B-Class.

In addition, we talked about the social media, its role in automotive industry and whom should manage it!

And, his journey with the Actros truck for a camping trip! And you will see what he drive at work ;)

Again, thank you very much to all Mercedes-Benz team for their great hospitality :)

The Actros camping post is here!

More photos: Cars & Life Facebook Page

  

Interview with Ian Cook, Pop Bang Colour

Today I was with Ian Cook known as Pop Bang Colour for an interview. I was lucky to have an interview with him, probably ten years later, he will be so busy and famous it will take ages to contact with him. Why I said this? Ian draws his paints without the usual brush. He uses something else! Remote controls cars and tyres. Yes, all his paints are done by them. In addition, he is the only person on earth draws like this.

Therefore, I am not surprised how his work became so popular in last couple of years. He created a new dimension in art, no one else achieved before. And I pretty sure that His unique talent is going take place in art history, he will become more famous and ten years later I have to wait for months to have an interview with him.

I cannot say I am an art person and judge the paints. I am just a normal person, no talent for arts. However, when I see his works, I cannot imagine how he creates so many details with just remote control cars and tyres. We all can have these materials very easily but I am pretty sure that, we cannot paint something proper. Controlling the remote control and constructing story in paint is a very complicated process but he achieves this perfectly.

He works is not limited with paintings, also has contemporary sculptures. I had chance to see his works and took some pictures. They are also amazing, I think this type of talent comes from birth. People like Ian have these abilities, receiving the properly education makes them perfect.

For more check the interview and visit his website! Pop Bang Colour and Twitter @PopBangColour

And thank you very much for Harvey Nichols Birmingham Cafe and Studio Venues.

For more photos please check Cars & Life Facebook Page

Interview with Al Clarke

I have in UK for nearly three years for my studies. During this time, there are some important moments that changed my life. One of this moment is MIPAA. MIPAA is motoring industry public affairs association, which was founded on 1968. However, I met with MIPAA through twitter during last summer. With just a hash tag #mipaa, and then I entered into a new world. 

Later on, I attended my first event on June. I still remember the Al's phone call and his greeting in Audi Quattro Rooms. Since that time, I attended many events and met with many people from automotive industry. This helped me a lot, honestly worth to many early trains from Birmingham. And everything started with hash tag on twitter #mipaa.

After all these time, I wanted to help to increase the awareness of MIPAA and thank to Al for his helps. So, yesterday I had an interview with him in London. We talked about MIPAA, Mayor of London Boris Johnson's award, future of social media, working in Ferrari. The rest of the conversation is on YouTube. 

Interview with Frank Stephenson

My trip to McLaren Technology HQ and interview Frank Stephenson (Design Director of McLaren).

Firstly I would like to start with Frank. He is the design director of McLaren and worked in Ford, BMW, Mini, Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and McLaren. You can find more information on interview. I had a great time with Frank in McLaren; he toured me around the building and showed every single place. The McLaren is really huge and I cannot define how it looks wonderful! After today, I can clearly say, Frank is a great designer and also a very nice person; and passionate with this work. When you listen to him, you understand the meaning of being a designer. And explain the designing a car with very simple words. I cannot ignore his passion to motorcycle. Honestly, after I had chat with him my perception towards motorcycle are changed. I never approach to them from the perspective Frank described me. You can find more about him in interview where you can find below.

Let's go back to McLaren headquarters in Woking, UK. Woking is a very nice, small city, silent, relaxing and lots of green. Inside the green, there is the McLaren HQ. The structure of the building totally part of the nature, there is an artificial lake, precisely placed tree. While I was there, the view from the window was like a canvas. The building and nature so well integrated with each other and you would never think that McLaren is producing cars here, but they do.

I want to talk about the building a little bit more. It is a total perfection, everything is perfectly designed, measurement are precise. The air is in same temperature in each room, there is no thermal shock here. You don't feel the cold weather from outside. And they achieved to isolate the smell in the food court from the rest of the building. By maintaining different air pressures.

The front part of the building is covered with glass and there are some curves. When it was first made, the wind was vibrating the glass. And McLaren F1 engineers designed a metal structure to eliminate this vibration through F1 technology.

And the corridors, when you first get inside you have the feeling that, I am in a James bond movie. Everywhere is perfect white, no dust or dirt at all. You go from tunnels, take lift with circular glass doors. There is nothing can annoy you with the building. Don't think that, it is just limited with the management part.

I visited the manufacturing site of MP4-12C, where they produce the car. Manufacturing plant is usually involves with dirt, oil, bad odour. However, it looks cleaner than hospitals. I am extremely serious! The manufacturing site is so clean, and you started to question your personal cleanliness.

The paint shop? It is supposed to be dirty but it is cleaner than my five start hotels! Each car is painted by hand with people who are expert on their job. Perfection does not finish here, McLaren does not paint the parts of the cars separately. In order to sustain the same level of paint, all parts are painted together.

Later on, the rain test. I was expecting to see some water but no! They test each car with rain test and no single drop at all. And last, the high speed test inside a glass room. It is also supposed to smell exhaust gas but again there is no smell at all.

I saw manufacturing plants but I have never seen something like this on earth. And possibly cannot see in future as well. Even the manufacturing team wear Hugo Boss dresses from head to toe! They don't have that ugly dresses like in other companies.

The MP4-12C, I witness to each stage of this car manufacturing. From naked chassis to ready for delivery. The manufacturing is so perfect, there is nothing wrong with the car. It is built like a luxury sedan. Parts are matching with no gap, the door is opened by sliding your fingers. The rear air brake works with hydraulic and acts as a proper air brake like in an airplane. One other example, navigation screen placed vertical to keep the car narrow!

The best part is the front head lights, at night you see the McLaren’s logo illuminated with LEDs and fins of sharks below it.

Lastly, McLaren is going to reveal more models! I don't want to give more details. But I assure that, Veyron will not be alone anymore.

From what I see today, if you are planning to buy an exclusive sports cars. There is only one choice, McLaren MP4-12C. From design studio to customer delivery preparation, everything is perfect!

Is that all from McLaren, of course not ;) I want to keep some secret...

For more photo: Facebook Gallery

And here is my interview with Frank Stephenson