Gilera Saturno 2.0

Posted on by Medina Davide

Un’idea progettuale per una nuova Gilera 500 Saturno Bialbero. L’originale è  nata sul finire del 1987 e commercializzata dal 1988, rappresenta un affascinante esempio di “neo-classic” ante-litteram, progettata principalmente per soddisfare la passione del mercato giapponese per le monocilindriche sportive italiane. Sviluppata ad Arcore sotto la guida dell’ingegner Sandro Colombo, questa moto rievoca nel nome la gloriosa progenitrice degli anni ’40, ma adotta una meccanica moderna: il motore è il “Bi4”, un monocilindrico bialbero a 4 tempi raffreddato a liquido, derivato dall’enduro Dakota, capace di circa 45 CV a 7000 giri/min. Caratterizzata da una linea “asciutta” e filante, con sella monoposto e una ciclistica raffinata (telaio a traliccio in acciaio, forcelle Marzocchi da 40 mm), la Saturno 500 offriva una guida precisa e leggera, distinguendosi per l’assenza di vibrazioni grazie al contralbero. Nonostante le sue qualità, la produzione fu limitata a meno di 2.000 esemplari totali, rendendola oggi una moto molto ambita dai collezionisti.

The Trabant saga

Posted on by Medina Davide

Joke of the day: if we add the third volume (third box) to a Mini, we almost get a modern version of the Trabant 601. Vertical tail lights with chrome frames, horizontal well defined shoulder line, rear window almost touching side windows, smooth sides with no moldings.

Human friendly cars

Posted on by Medina Davide

A more livable car interior

Cars are getting bigger and bulkier on the outside but darker and more claustrophobic on the inside. Smaller windows, gloomy grayish shades. Safety during crashes played a role in this transformation and, of course, there are structural constraints to consider while designing the passenger compartment. Still we can make the atmosphere more convivial, remember the 1984 Renault Espace? That was great.

Fiat 600 Multipla Taxi

Posted on by Medina Davide

Chissà se un giorno vedremo nelle strade di Roma, Firenze o Milano passare dei taxi Fiat Multipla elettrici a guida autonoma, possibilmente con il tetto in cristallo per ammirare le bellezze della nostra architettura. Piccole, a misura di centro storico, non servirebbero per i trasferimenti extraurbani verso gli aeroporti ma solo per portare i turisti nei centri cittadini, magari attraversando le ZTL. Stellantis ci pensi sopra.

A 4-wheel Yamaha Niken?

Posted on by Medina Davide

A 4-wheel Yamaha Niken 900

To be honest I truly like the Yamaha Niken 900, the GT with side bags and a proper windshield makes even more sense, since the bike is definitely not a supersport or a race replica. Now image an off-road version of it and make it like a quad, with four wheels. Isn’t it cool? It’s basically a Niken ATV.

My beloved Matra Rancho

Posted on by Medina Davide

As a kid, one of my favorite toys was a 1:24 scale Matra Rancho. It was so far ahead of the boring sedans everyone was driving in early 1980s. What if Stellantis builds a New Matra Rancho on the Citroën Berlingo/ Peugeot Partner platform? Something in between a SUV and a fourgonnette? Because, let’s face it, the Berlingo is very very practical but not very alluring. A big boxy body coupled with small wheels is not attractive, it lacks the ‘Indiana Jones’ effect that we want to show while stuck in traffic halfway through our daily commute.

What’s a Caprese?

Posted on by Medina Davide

My interpretation of an exclusive caprese taxi.

You might know the Caprese salad or the Capri Sun Juice (that’s not juice) or Ford Capri. No, I’m referring to a niche in the niche, a ‘caprese taxi’ is a custom built convertible taxi that only exists in Capri, Italy. It’s not just a cabriolet, otherwise it would simply be called an ‘open top taxi’. It must have 4 doors, two or three comfortable rows of seats and when the top is open passengers can watch the panorama from a 360 degrees POV. A convertible cab is already cool, a Caprese is top. The base to build a Caprese taxi is always a sedan or a minivan with room for people and luggage of course. To be fairly honest, their design is not exactly the apex of Italian design but the main character in Capri is the view from the car, not the car.

Fiat 500 4 door

Posted on by Medina Davide

I know, I know, do we really need a 4-door Fiat 500? Maybe not, but the romanticism of the 2-door model has the inconvenient shortcoming of not being practical. You may argue that Fiat already features the 600 with four doors, but that’s different model: it’s way bigger and more expensive. Four doors on the tiny 500 would make life easier when going for groceries, shopping or taking kids to school. Clearly, fifteen additional centimeters to the original length are needed to fit two more doors and real people in the backseat, as we all know human beings can’t be folded and stored in the back like empty bags. Actually they can but it’s not recommended, that’s why cars have ‘Emergency Trunk Releases’. The truth is the population is getting taller and fatter, microcars are still cute but not anymore as practical as they used to be in the 70s or the 80s. The list of manufacturers quitting 2-door versions of their cars is increasing every year, not even Volkswagen bets anymore on a 2-door Golf GTI. The challenge is to balance the cuteness of the original model with the needs of nowadays drivers. Not easy, I know, especially on a Monday morning like this.