Sharp Autos: Stile Bertone Mantide

by Peter on April 30th, 2009

There’s something immediately impressive about the word “supercar.” One thinks of Christian Bale speeding through the streets of Gotham City or, to a lesser extent, David Hasselhoff jumping into KITT. But while these two cars have their obvious fictional advantages, a Morgan Freeman-less Bruce Wayne would probably skip the engineering involved in making the Batmobile and just buy himself the new Stile Bertone Mantide.

The Mantide, a one-off concept car unveiled this week at the Shanghai Auto Show, puts fictional supercars to shame. It was designed by Jason Castriota – the American behind the Ferrari 599 and Maserati Birdcage 75 – and is an attractive blend of Italian finesse and classic American power. In a controversial move, he eschewed Ferrari or Porsche in favour of choosing the 2009 Corvette ZR1 as the platform for the new supercar, which boasted 638 horsepower before he even touched it. By crafting a lighter, more aerodynamic body, Castriota and his team delivered a car that goes 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. Hasselhoff’s Trans-Am never did that.

As yet unpriced. For more information visit insideprojectm.com.

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Sharp Tech: Motorola W233 MOTO RENEW

by Peter on April 29th, 2009

For some, environmentalism is a calling. But living green shouldn’t mean that you can’t make your own outgoing calls, too – or text messages, for that matter – in an eco-friendly, sustainable way. For the eco-conscious man with an agenda, Motorola has introduced the W233 MOTO RENEW, the world’s greenest cellular phone.

For a device meant to connect people across the planet, the RENEW boasts a remarkably small ecological footprint. Motorola says that the phone is completely carbon neutral, so you can make work calls from your bike without having to disrupt your oil-free morning. Even better, the whole thing is made out of recycled plastic water bottles. This means that the external casing of the phone itself is completely recyclable, so when you’re done (maybe this eco-conscious thing was just a phase and you’ll spring for an iPhone soon) you can just toss it into the blue bin on your way out to cut off those misguided dreadlocks.

But just because it’s green doesn’t mean it sacrifices quality. The RENEW has all the features you want in a phone, including Motorola CrystalTalk technology, so your conversations can be as clear as the water in that suburban pond you just reclaimed. If living green is a calling, it’s calling on this phone.

Motorola W233 MOTO RENEW is available at Fido, $0 with a two-year plan, or $65 prepaid. See motorola.ca/renew for details.

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Sharp Style: Bentley Chronograph

by Mark on April 28th, 2009

There’s nothing wrong with driving a Bentley. Not really. A Bentley is muscular, bold, elegant. A Bentley is the ultimate automotive sign of prestige – people take notice of the man who steps out of one. But this, it seems, is both the upside and the down of driving a Bentley: at some point, you do have to step out, leaving your car – and everything it stands for – waiting at the curb (or, more likely, with the valet). And that leaves you counting down the minutes until you can return to it, because let’s face it, you’re not showing off for the meter maid.

Enter the new Bentley Motors Speed Chronograph in the Breitling for Bentley watch collection. This new addition to the Breitling collection gives you all the status and performance of a Bentley – without ever taking it off your wrist. With this new chronograph, Breitling has drawn on the aviation history of both companies to craft a LeMans worthy timepiece. In fact, this watch gives a whole new meaning to watching time fly. Like Bentley cars, these watches are about performance and luxury. The dials evoke the Bentley speedometer while the chronograph is modeled after the car’s distinctive rims. Add that to the fact that the chronograph works on a 30-second mechanism – rather than 60, providing a more accurate reading to 1/8 of a second – and you’ll literally be wondering where the time went.

The chronometer is on various styles at various prices. See breitlingforbentley.com for details and to find your closest retailer.

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