Martijn's Autofotografie

BMW ActiveHybrid 7

Martijn — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:50:13 +0000

Another hybrid by BMW after the X6 I recently shot. Main difference is that this one can’t drive without the internal combustion engine running, and that you can watch TV in the back of this one…

Interestingly, although the two BMW ActiveHybrid vehicles would seem to be simply the same hybrid driveline fitted into two different body styles, this is not the case. The X6 ActiveHybrid is a “full” hybrid that can be driven on electric power alone, while the ActiveHybrid 7 is a “mild” hybrid which can’t.

Actually, the only real commonality in their hybrid powertrains is the “N63” 4.4-litre, direct-injected and twin-turbocharged gasoline V8, a motor also found in several non-hybrid BMW models. This engine is unusual in that the exhaust and twin turbochargers are mounted in the valley of the “V”, the opposite of most conventional V-engines.

In the ActiveHybrid 7, this V8 is tuned to produce 40 more horses than the normal 750i/Li’s 400 hp. The slight delay in turbo-boost production that might result from the higher state of tune is offset by the assistance of the hybrid system’s electric motor.

The cabin and its fittings are just as those in the new-this-year, non-hybrid 7, including an improved version of iDrive (much better, still not perfect), vastly simplified control stalks, and an audio system with a volume knob and honest-to-God preset buttons.

Other than xDrive, virtually any other 7 Series option is available, from Night Vision with pedestrian detection to a rear seat infotainment system with individual seat-back mounted LCD screens and its own iDrive controllers.

You can read the full review in Dutch on Rijtesten.nl…

Porsche Cayenne Turbo

Martijn — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:25:02 +0000

Put the words Porsche and Turbo together, and the result tends to be one of blazing quickness. For the new Cayenne Turbo, that phenomenon has not changed. Blessed with a 4.8-liter twin-turbo V8 that shakes the earth with 500 horsepower and a whopping 700 Nm, the hottest of Porsche peppers fires from 0 to 100 km/h in roughly 4.7 seconds yet delivers estimated fuel economy equaling that of last year’s V6.

The exterior of the new Cayenne follows in Porsche’s philosophy of evolutionary design, but the new model does feature a much sleeker appearance than the current Cayenne, thanks to more organic body lines.

With a redesigned interior, following Panamera cues, the new Cayenne sports a new and longer center console and a repositioned shift-knob. Overall, nearly everything has been freshened and tweaked, including placement of the center air vents, sportier gauges and a new steering wheel.

With 500 hp at 6,000 rpm, the Cayenne Turbo possesses the sort of power reserves to make some so-called supercars appear almost tame by comparison. All it takes to breech the sort of speed limits posted in the Netherlands is a slight brush of the throttle, even at low revs in high gears.

Frankly, the new Porsche is astonishingly fast by any standard, let alone those of your typical luxury SUV. Factory figures suggest it will accelerate from a standstill to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.7 seconds, 0.2 second quicker than before. In comparison, the Porsche 911 Carrera requires 4.9 seconds. Even more impressively, the Cayenne Turbo doesn’t quit until it reaches 278 km/h.

What Porsche has done with the new Porsche Cayenne Turbo is provide an emphatic answer to those who questioned whether there was a future for high-powered luxury SUVs. By retaining its high levels of performance and road-holding while combining them with a sizable reduction in weight and big gains in fuel economy, the Cayenne Turbo proves you can have your cake and eat it, too.

You can read the full (Dutch) review over at Rijtesten.nl…

BMW 335i Cabrio DCT High Executive

Martijn — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:22:10 +0000

July seems to be convertible-month for me, with even more coming up after this one. The weather was much nicer this time, so you won’t hear me complain… Also helps that I’m a big fan of the 335i, that sounds even better when you’re not separated from it’s exhaust sound by a fixed roof. The DCT plays along nicely, with the occasional exhaust popping at up shifts and great sounding rev matching action on downshifts.

I kinda expected people to hate on it, but we even got the occasional thumbs up!

The handling is great and the car is really quick, but that was to be expected. Still a great car to drive IMHO!

I havn’t done any rigshots lately, mainly due to the lack of an ultra wide angle. But as the editor I was with had both a Canon 10-22 and his tripod with him, I couldn’t resist taking this shot…

Read the full test on Rijtesten.nl…

Mercedes-Benz E Cabriolet 250 CGI

Martijn — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:04:01 +0000

It’s summer, so time to photograph some convertibles! It was a blazing hot 35 degrees Celcius on the day of this shoot, so it wasn’t as nice as you’d think, at least not when standing still.

In case you’re wondering where all that DSB-bank-money previously went: the mansion you see in the shots was previously owned by them and is now up for sale for a whopping €4,500,000…

You can read the full test over at Rijtesten.nl…

Volkswagen Transporter 2.0 BiTDI DSG Highline

Martijn — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:48:26 +0000

Wait, wut, a commercial van on here? That’s right! Although this one is specced to the max, with the new bi-turbo 2 liter TDI engine combined with DSG and lots of options like the popular RNS 510 head unit. I doubt that anyone would buy a Transporter this well equipped, especially when looking at the hefty price tag of € 76.842, but it’s very nice nonetheless to see the large variety of options that VW is offering.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised while driving it. Sure, it’s quite long, so you have to remember to turn in later at roundabouts, but it handles quite good and is much quicker than you’d expect!

You can read the test over at Rijtesten.nl…

BMW ActiveHybrid X6

Martijn — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:21:37 +0000

Now here’s a new one… hybrid and fun! Imagine yourself being CEO of a larger company… During the crisis you decided that your company needed to be more green and eco, so you have all your employees driving Priuses and Civic Hybrids. After they start nagging you about your gas guzzling SUV, you decide to step up and get yourself a hybrid. A hybrid with a V8 and a combined output of 485hp and 780Nm, capable of doing 0-100 km/h in 5.6s!

To be honest it’s better than I expected! The car is good handler for its size, and it’s great to roll through a village with no engine sound (it can be driven fully electric up to 68km/h) and than at the end of town floor it and hear the V8 bark at you. It’s almost too bad that the car is insulated so good, because the V8 sound even better when driving by. But I’d still rather have this package as an X5.

You can read more about it over at Rijtesten.nl…

Toyota Land Cruiser 3.0 D4-D SX

Martijn — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:15:55 +0000

An icon, that’s what it really is… one of the last true offroaders. No, it’s not really sophisticated, even though it has an awesome stereo, leather everywhere and all the latest gadgets. But it’s a really capable offroader, killing crappy dirtroads while towing a huge trailer. Oh, and it’s BIG, even when parked next to an Audi Q7.

Needless to say that the average treehugger won’t like you, but I don’t think that the average buyer cares about that…

Read the full review on Rijtesten.nl…

Lotus Evora 2+0

Martijn — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:00:42 +0000

Almost by accident I found out that there was an opportunity for me to shoot this Lotus Evora for Rijtesten.nl. As it is highly regarded by my favorite magazine EVO, I loved to get up close and personal with it. The weather was really hot and humid that day, with a lot of rain as we reached our desired photo location, but oh well, what can you do about it?

The car itself is awesome! Not the fastest or most spectacular car in the world, but delivering a very honest driving experience. The throttle has quite a long travel for example, feeling less fast in it’s reaction, but allowing you to beautifully balance the car in a fast corner.

The interior is a big step up from the Elise and the steeringwheel has the best longitudinal adjustment I’ve ever encountered, great if your 6’5″!

The Toyota derived engine, out of a US-Camry, suits the car really good. I expected it to be more rev-happy, but this example was really fresh with just 300km on the odo, so I suspect it to loosen up some more.

I had to take both my camera along with me for this shoot, as I had just sold my Canon 17-40L and thus didn’t have any wide-angle on my 7D. I took my 5D + 28/1.8 along, mainly for the interior-shots, but I have to say that the 7D is lightyears ahead of it in terms of speed and metering.

I have to add that Mart van der Kooi from ‘van der Kooi Sportscar’, the Dutch Lotus-importer is one of the nicest car-guys I’ve met. A real car-fanatic himself and very down to earth, very refreshing in todays marketing-guru-world!

Read the full review on Rijtesten.nl…

Volkswagen Scirocco R

Martijn — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:56:18 +0000

On the day I had to shoot this German hot hatch, we also returned the Fiat 500C near Amsterdam. I had heard about this location, the old NDSM-wharf, before and it turned out to be awesome for car photography. All areas are freely accessible and everybody over there just minds his own business and doesn’t bother a busy photographer.

The car itself is great! I’ve driven a few different variations of the 2.0 turbo engine from VAG, but it feels really feisty in this application. Needless to say we had quite some fun blasting through the tunnels around Amsterdam.

I just had to add this iPhone-shot, the road where we took the driving shots is actually called ‘circuit’…

As usual you can read the test over at Rijtesten.nl.

Fiat 500C 1.2 Start and Stop Dualogic Rock

Martijn — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:49:50 +0000

The editors over at Rijtesten.nl were kind enough to lent me a Fiat 500 Cabrio for a day, to suprise my g/f. It’s one of her favorite cars and she had been nagging me to test one for a while. Needless to say she was very happy when I turned up in this little cutie… The car itself is incredibly slow with the 1.2 combined with the DualLogic-transmission, but still a hoot to drive! It’s one of those sparse feel-good-cars, where people stop and point everywhere you turn up, especially in this rarer red color. We had a great day, even though we had some rain…