"The chassis on a BMW was a thing of beauty compared with other makes of the day...So we had the strategy of always emphasizing handling and driving pleasure. But it took us a few weeks to come up with a line, a slogan, to go with the idea."...The moment he wrote the famous line of ad copy doesn't stay with Puris. He just recalls working out a slew of fragmented words and phrases at his desk until one jumped off the page at him: 'The Ultimate Driving Machine'. (Martin Puris, speaking to David Kiley in Driven: Inside BMW, the Most Admired Car Company in the World).More than just a slogan,...'The Ultimate Driving Machine' became a mission statement that informed everything the company did...Crucially,...it spoke directly to everything men love about driving: control, power, and the surging thrill they feel in the pit of their stomachs as they apply pressure to the accelerator. (Mark Turngate, Branded Male).
"Premium will increasingly be defined in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility...In line with our Strategy Number ONE, we are continually reviewing all projects and initiatives to check them for future viability and sustainability. Our Formula 1 campaign is thus less a key promoter for us." (Dr. Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the BMW board, announcing BMW's withdrawal from Formula 1 after failing to win the World Championship in ten years of effort.)
Oi Oik, taking the piss out of a mans wheels is fighting talk where I come from.
ReplyDeleteYou could turn the argument around and ask why no F1 teams produce good affordable road cars (no renault do not count, they make crap)
Or we could say, basing yourself away from the "cluster" of main F1 teams in the UK, in Switzerland does not do your chances any good.
...I thought jez summed it up at the end of sundays top gear " the end of an era" the enviormentalists seem to have won, we will all soon be driving something like a lada circa 1985.
The ultimate driving machine will be for the super rich and their government and technocratic stooges, us mortals will have to do with the nostalgia.
What is that gorgeous piece of music which accompanied Clarkson's elegy? It sounded a bit vangelis.
ReplyDeleteNearly...its, An Ending (Ascent)" by Brian Eno.
ReplyDeleteNot sure on the location, it looks like the lakes and Buttermere Valley.
but some of it I think was the Isle of Man.