Mercedes McLaren Yo-Yo

I am not a fan of old cars. When there is a new model, I usual don’t like the previous one. There are some exceptions! When Mercedes revealed the ugly looking SLS AMG model, I felt the same. It is a retro interpretation of iconic model 300SL from 1954. But it was not the first time, unfortunately it was the second time! They did the same thing with SLR. It was also a retro interpretation of 300SL, but sales did not go that well.

Mercedes thought that, it is like a car similar to estate E Class and planned to keep producing it for seven years, which is very unusual for super car market. And it was not good enough to compete with Ferrari Enzo. They were introduced at the same time. Also Ferrari Enzo was not planned to be sold for seven years and 500 cars per year! With a basic maths, Mercedes planned to sell 3500 SLRs in seven years. This strategy is very normal for a dull E Class but it did not work with SLR!

Anyway, Mercedes introduced the SLS AMG which is cheaper than SLR and boring than SLR and worse looking than SLR and made from aluminium instead of carbon fibre. And SLS something turn into mass production “super” car. You can see it everywhere on earth, Mercedes loves to sell cars to everyone and destroy the uniqueness.

Anyway, I have just saw something in Mercedes merchandise store. I really wish to meet with the person, who is designing the products here. The SLR section offers yoyo covered with leather. What were you thinking while designing this product for SLR! SLR has a fluctuating sales figure and let’s represent this with a yo-yo! I could not find any plausible reason to offer a yo-yo with SLR name on it!

Mercedes did not like the SLR, we all know that but please don’t take revenge like this!

http://shop.mercedes-benzworld.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1541

Pictures' Copyrights

Mercedes

Carbon Fibre Fashion

Carbon fibre became a very popular material in many different areas. It started with airplanes, formula 1 cars, normal cars, laptop computers, iPhone cases and many other things. Carbon fibre is a composite material. This means, it is a combination of carbon and fibre. More basically, it is a very strong plastic! Actually it is stronger than steal and also very light, therefore it is very expensive. This unique characteristics make is very popular for automotive and aerospace industry. Mercedes McLaren SLR was a carbon fibre car, all formula 1 cars are carbon fibre, some Porsche 911 models especially GT series have carbon fibre parts to reduce weight and sustain the same level of safety.

Interestingly this ugly looking material and offers the feeling of plastic become a fashion material. Actually I was afraid of this integration in fashion, because carbon fibre is like a plastic. You cannot feel the difference in fashion products and looks weird. For iPhone cases, it might be okay. Light and robust to damages, that’s fine. A fresh fashion designer from Prague decided to use carbon fibre in shoes, in women shoes! I am not kidding. She designed high heels made from carbon fibre, the material looks exactly the same as a car interior or some unpainted parts of Mercedes SLR.

In terms of creativity, this is a great integration but in terms of functionality I really wonder the benefit. With these carbon fibres shoes, you will use less calories to walk around and even if you use them for breaking some other things nothing would happen. Also you can run faster with these shoes, as they are lighter! Actually I have no idea how carbon fibre create a benefit for fashion.

For more details; Zuzana Serbak and Carbon Fibre

Pictures' Copyrights

Mercedes, BMW, Zuzana Serbak