21 Feb 2016 – Driven To Write

A Photo For Sunday: 2002 Volvo S80

This is what it takes to turn one of the more handsome saloons of the past decade or so into an anonymous slab: matte black paint.

Ruined: a Volvo S80 with matte black paint all over it. Everywhere.

Volvo didn’t offer this car with the asphalt option. The owner actively decided they wanted to smear their lovely Swedish saloon with this drab coating. There’s a reason matte paint is not typically offered by OEMs. The highlights, worked over to the last 0.005 mm, disappear and the forms are flattended. Towards what end? Continue reading “A Photo For Sunday: 2002 Volvo S80”

Special – Karl Lagerfeld’s Salo(o)ns

It isn’t unusual for a fashion designer to sprinkle a bit of his fairy dust onto the humble products of car manufacturers. What is more unusual is for a fashion designer to create a bespoke car for himself. Which is exactly what Karl Lagerfeld did – twice.

bmw_individual_7er_karl_lagerfeld_38_20045_1 — Space for the hand fan included, somewhere, Photo (c) e38.ru

Franco-German fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld, is about as illustrious and flamboyant a homo sapiens as can be. That he chose neither a Rolls-Royce, nor a Mercedes 600 covered in mother of pearl, nor a carriage made of solid ivory, but the moderately sporting, restrained shape of BMW’s second and third generations of Seven series saloons as his personal means of transportation can therefore be described as a decision that is as surprising and idiosyncratic as the man himself. Continue reading “Special – Karl Lagerfeld’s Salo(o)ns”