Silent Running: The Impressive Mercedes S 500 Plug In Hybrid

A few days ago I had the golden opportunity to accompany Marc J. Christiansen and Johannes Schlörb from fuenfkommasechs.de.

We had a blast.

Life Is Good.

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Blåvand, Denmark, April 2014. All toys belong to Helge, I just enjoyed 'em.

Mopar Spring Fling 2014

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

The Mopar Spring Fling just made it clear: It’s high time to exchange the 1964 Imperial for a plain-Jane Mopar. Btw – thanks for giving me a ride in your HEMI monster, Helge!

Chromjuwelen Magazine X Flipboard

Just because we are working hard on the relaunch of chromjuwelen.com doesn't mean we stopped publishing our web finds or selected stories from our Contributing Network. Of course, at the moment we don’t produce lots of Chromjuwelen reportages, but our social branches like Tumblr are busier than ever. Regarding Tumblr (Chromjuwelen, Chromjuwelen Motor Öl) we are looking forward to set a new record soon: 15k followers. Yeah!

Furthermore, we are gaining new experiences with another curation tool: Flipboard. So if you are a user — tell us in the comments what you think! Here's our Chromjuwelen subscription link.

Chromjuwelen.com: WHERE'S THE BEEF?

"Your stories, your international network, your multidimensional brand Chromjuwelen — DUDES, YOU ARE SITTING ON A GOLDMINE!" — that's what Chris and I often have heard since we launched Chromjuwelen.com back in 2005. But as stated in "It’s time to get focussed" we suspect that we buried — faced with so many funky and irresistible interweb opportunities — our Unique Selling Proposition — STORYTELLING. So it’s high time for digging. First of all for our USPs, then for gold.

We decided we'll to do it publicly, with opened visor. In short: We'll use storytelling to hack our broken storytelling. Virtually as a a self-prescribed therapy. To illustrate our mission, we'll borrow Wendy’s famous claim as our battle cry. 'Cause "WHERE'S THE BEEF?" hits the nail on the head. Especially these days, where the media scene seems to explode and everybody affirms he's making millions. We don't believe the hype.

We've got a long list of topics we would like to discuss, including things like money (of course), reach, trendsetters, language and culture — just to name a few. So stay tuned and let us know in the comments what you think. And of course, we still speak Deutsch. So don’t hesitate.

Chromjuwelen Motor Öl X Lowly Gentlemen & StanceWorks

Andrew, Michael — we feel more than honored to see Chromjuwelen Motor Öl featured on The Lowly Gentlemen and StanceWorks! Now it is up to us to get our classic oil shipped in an orderable amount to the US.

In this context: We are still in search for an US distribution partner. If anybody reads this who could help us — shoot us an email! In the meantime: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl can be ordered here.

Chromjuwelen.com & Ralf Becker Consultants: It's time to get focussed

Facebook closes it’s @facebook-email-service ('cause nobody wants it), Germans are ditching WhatsApp ('cause they are paranoid) — and for me it’s time to end up my Tumblr-blog-excursion. We are still in a digital stone age, and you know how it is: "Don't be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try." 

I still believe Tumblr is one of the best blogging tools out there, but either I stuffed way too much web finds in my Tumblr or used it in an inconsequent or wrong way. Tumblr works perfectly for our Chromjuwelen Motor Oil blog, but it never worked out as a full replacement for my "Ralf Becker Consultants" business blog.

It’s time to bring ralfbecker.com back. For branding-/marketing-topics, cherry picking and agency communication. "Lose Sight — Lose Fight" is written on the back of my business card of Ralf Becker Consultants. And "Losing Sight" is exactly what happened. With too many channels my communication got more and more frayed. So it’s time to regain the lead again (which is also written on my business card). Let's return to go!

Another MASSIVE PROJECT we are just working on is to rethink our lovely mothership, chromjuwelen.com. In the last eight years chromjuwelen.com got fat, felted and sluggish. When we — Christopher Stegemann and I — started chromjuwelen.com 2005 we had (to be honest) no idea where the business would be. In the meantime we figured out that we aren't that bad in things like storytelling, curating and content strategy. But it seemed we buried our skills, and it’s high time to expose them again. For our fans and readers, and for our clients.

Ha — coming home feels good!

Liebe Autoindustrie, Ihr habt mich als Neuwagenkunden verloren.

— To my English readers: I am sorry, I will keep this one in German. Maybe I'll translate it later. —

Angefangen hat alles mit der Suche nach einem neuen Familienauto. Meine naive Vorstellung: Vier Türen, Klima (sonst wird man wahnsinnig mit dem randalierenden Nachwuchs) und ein halbwegs modernes Sicherheitspaket. Soll heißen: Gurte hinten, Kopfstützen, eventuell Airbags und ABS. Aber ansonsten bitte so wenig wie möglich Computerzeugs. Weder brauche ich einen Regensensor, noch einen Fahr- oder Was-Auch-Immer-Assistenten. Diese Dinge mitsamt ihren monströsen Steuercomputern sind sowieso schon in ein paar Jahren von niemanden mehr zu debuggen.

Eigentlich also eine einfache und kurzweilige Aufgabe. Sollte man meinen. Vielleicht, um das Bild abzurunden, noch ein paar weitere Details. Ich vermeide gerne Plastikessen und jeglichen Konsummüll, der in vietnamesischen Steuersparparadiesen produziert wird. Naomi Klein ("No Logo") hat übrigens Schuld daran. Soll heissen: Kein Sweatshirt aus einem Sweatshop, keine Erdbeeren im norddeutschen Winter, kein unnötiger Online-Kaufrausch (inklusive DHL-Retour-Amoklauf). An meinen Arbeitsgeräten, bei deren Produktion die Fabrikarbeiter aufgrund der widrigen Arbeitsbedingungen nicht selten lieber den Freitod wählen (Stichwort "Foxconn Electronics Inc."), komme ich aktuell nicht vorbei. Noch nicht. Aber das ist nur eine Frage der Zeit.

Ich wohne zentral und fahre überschaubare Strecken – insofern ist der Verbrauch zwar interessant, aber mehr auch nicht. Schlachtentscheidend hingegen sind viel mehr Dinge wie der "ökologische Rucksack" (Gesamtbillanz Herstellungsprozeß) und der Anspruch, dass man notfalls nochmals selber Hand angelegen kann (siehe Self-Repair Manifesto). Denn: "Plastic cars are for plastic people." Und: "Life is too short for ... er ... any kind of bullshit." 

Ich bin raus.

Also besuchte ich den modernen Autohandel und habe mich bewusst auf die andere Seite gestellt – also auf die des Kunden (für den ich auch mitunter Medien mache, damit er ein Auto kauft). Das Ergbnis war ernüchternd. Wer zur Hölle braucht eigentlich all' diese seelenlosen Peoplemover, die dadurch auffallen, dass sie nicht auffallen? Die alle krampfhaft versuchen, ihre Belanglosigkeit mit Techniküberfrachtung zu kaschieren? Ich zumindest nicht. Ich bin raus.

Ich habe mich erschrocken, wie viele Modelle ich noch nicht einmal auf dem Schirm hatte. Sicher, jetzt habe ich meine Wurzeln auch eher im Bereich der klassischen Automobile – aber dennoch bin ich potentieller Kunde. Nur, dass mich die lustigen, neuen Automodelle und deren Reklame anscheinend schon lange nicht mehr erreichen. Und überhaupt: "iFuel-Eco-Blue-Turbo-Move-Efficiency"? Wer denkt sich nur so einen Quatsch aus! Anscheinendend Menschen, die auf einem anderen Planeten leben, als ich es tue. Und die kein Interesse daran haben, jemals wieder andere (und vielleicht jüngere) Zielgruppen als ihresgleichen zu erreichen.

Kurzum: Die zu Tode diversifizierten Modellpaletten und die Inflation der gesichtlosen Cross-Over-Modelle schrecken mich ab. Liebe Autoindustrie: Das alltägliche Leben ist schon kompliziert genug. Warum macht Ihr es mir so schwer? Ich befürchte, Ihr habt mich verloren. Zumindest, wenn es um den Bereich der einfachen Brot-und-Butter-Autos geht.

Neuwagenkäufer und Automedien im Schnitt: 50+

Man mag es ja der Autoindustrie nicht verübeln. Schließlich erfordern internationale Expansionen, das bei Laune halten der Shareholder, der weltweite Verkauf neuer Modellserien und Themen wie Eigenzulassungen vollste Konzentration. Und was spielen da schon Meinungen einzelner Querulanten (wie mir), die weder in einem Boom-Land wie China zuhause sind, noch dem Alter der Zielgruppe der typischen Automedienleser und Neuwagen-Erstkäufer (50+!) entsprechen, für eine Rolle. Ungemütlich wird es nur, wenn mehr und mehr Leute so denken. Und ich persönlich kenne eine ganze Menge, die das tun. Darunter übrigens nicht wenige Experten, die den Automotive Markt in- und auswendig kennen.

Sei es drum. Es gibt zum Glück heute genügend alltagstaugliche Klassiker, sodass ich beruhigt auf einen modernen Assistenzbomber verzichten kann. Der Markt wird es locker verschmerzen und (viel wichtiger) die Ökobilanz freut sich. Bleibt nur zu hoffen, dass in Zukunft doch mal ein Unternehmen – vielleicht sogar aus einem Non-Automotive-Bereich (Google? Apple? Tesla?) – um die Ecke kommt. Mit Produkten, die meinen einfachen Wünschen entsprechen. Und denen ich eher vertraue.

Aber – was kauf' ich jetzt?

Ich denke, es wird wohl auf ein 70er-80er Luxusmodell mit einem Stern auf der Haube hinauslaufen. Oder auf einen Vintage-SUV (nein, keinen modernen MILF-Laster) wie zum Beispiel einem G-Modell oder einem Land Rover Defender.

Ins ökologische Beuteraster passen würde übrigens laut seiner Fakten auch ein Jeep Wrangler. Denn schenkt man diesem Artikel Glauben, dann weist der Jeep TJ Wrangler den besten Ökowert aus. Zumindest im Vergleich mit Hybrid-Modellen.

Schon amüsant: "[...] But you could also serve the environment better by choosing a Hummer H2 ($3.027) or H3 ($1.949), a Cadillac Escalade ($2.753), a Lincoln Navigator ($2.617), a Dodge Ram ($2.484), or pretty much anything else for less than an Accord Hybrid ($3.295), Toyota Prius ($3.249), Honda Civic Hybrid ($3.238), or Ford Escape Hybrid ($3.178). [...]"

Und der Spritverbrauch von 'nem Wagen im besten Alter? Zur Hölle damit!

(Foto via Justin Lippert)

The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class

"Hamburg, May 15, 2013. This evening, the new flagship for luxurious motoring landed in Hamburg on board an Airbus A300-600 DHL cargo plane. Mercedes-Benz had the new S-Class flown in exclusively from its birthplace in Stuttgart for its world premiere at Airbus in Finkenwerder.

At the delivery centre for the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft and a benchmark in travel comfort, Mercedes-Benz unveiled its new luxury saloon in front of around 750 international guests from the worlds of politics, industry and media. Flanked by the 20 current Mercedes-Benz models and musically accompanied by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the new top-of-the-line model from Stuttgart rolled across the tarmac as part of a spectacular show.

In a dazzling display, it took up its position at the head of the Mercedes-Benz family and drove onto the stage with its first passenger, the global superstar Alicia Keys."

BAM!

Even after a couple of days, it's hard to find the right words. Although I am personally not a fan of high tech stuffed cars, the new S-Class with it's three engineering priorities "Intelligent Drive", "Efficient Technology" and "Essence of Luxury", extends the boundaries of technology on many levels.

Not to mention the fact Mercedes-Benz threw a mind-blowing party. Five German star-rated chefs specialising in different culinary styles each cooked their own dish, Alicia Keys had come specially to Hamburg just a few days ahead of the start of her European tour. And with 19 musicians under conductor Prof. Johannes Schild, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra played various pieces that had been specially composed for the world premiere of the S-Class by the internationally successful film composer Marius Ruhland.

Chapeau, Mercedes-Benz.

Continental X Chromjuwelen: Videos

It has been long overdue that we compile a video of all our brand ambassador media work that we did for Continental. From our early (awkward) beginnings 'til now. So, here it is. Enjoy.

In this context I would like to send out a big thank-you to all the people who made this happen (in alphabetical order): Carsten Brix (cinematographer), Dean Malay (deluma productions), Dennis Petermann (autobild.tv), Christian Suhr (Filmfreunde) and Jan Wigger (cinematographer). And of course to Kai Rühling (Continental) — who wasn't afraid to handle our neurosis. Props go as well to JC Chaix, my personal "Principal Word Basher" aka "Ralf's Crazy Shit Dept.". Dude, you know what I am talking about.

In this context I would like to add two more videos: A short version of "Continental Extreme" and a Chinese bootleg of our "Chromjuwelen Road Movie". The first one was compiled because the full version of Continental Extreme may be way to long to catch the message, the second one was done by our Chinese colleagues of Continental.

If if you like our videos — follow our brand-new (re-activated) YouTube-Channel!

Style Deluxe: Bell Rock Rod

When Oliver Kaps told me the first time that he'll build a stretched Hot Rod, I was like: W-T-F. And I suppose everybody thought "W-T-F" as well. Beside Olli himself. He was always sure it would look awesome. Now, as the rod is finished, I know I was wrong. The car is a beauty. Although it has been stretched.

Mr. Kaps picked up a 1931 Chevrolet as a basis. And if you are familiar with the German TÜV, you'll know what it means to get such a monstrum street legal. Ok, it wasn't easy all the time, but Olli accomplished it. Chapeau!

The Bell Rock Rod was built for the Bell Rock Hotel (Rust Europar Park). You'll find a lot of details on Olli's site — just follow this link.

(Photos: Carlos Fernandez Laser)

Chromjuwelen Motor Öl: Top Gear Magazine, Petrolicious

I love my inbox (not). I just rediscovered this photo Clemens Gleich (mojomag.de) sent me — over a month ago. The reason why I turned my back to my inbox (and overlooked this Top Gear Magazine photo) is we shut ourselves away to build a brandnew Chromjuwelen Motor Öl website, which you might have seen already. If not — shazam, HERE IT IS. 

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. Ok, and while we're on it, I forgot to say thank you to Wrenchmonkees as well. Darn, I am an idiot ... 

Well, with this one I will be much faster: our soulmates from Petrolicious just presented our tailor mad engine oil to their audience — thank you very much, Barmak!

Mercedes-Benz: Die G-Klasse von 1979 bis heute

Darn it! Now I am hooked. And want a Mercedes-Benz G-Class. Especially as I sold my Mercedes-Benz W 108 in 2012.

Anyway — Thank you very much for sending me "Legendewagen — Die G-Klasse von 1979 bis heute", Mercedes-Benz!

Google+ Communities

"Google+ Communities" is the new kid on the block. And although a lot of people think Google+ is dead, we think it's worth a try. As of shortly Google's tools felt clunky and geeky, but in the meantime that has changed. The web-interface is smart, and the new mobile app is a killer. No more fiddling with different apps, just one intuitive and snappy client.

Beside from that the quality of communications quality on G+ is very high. Which is perfect for our intention, as we aren't interested in just another blinged and artistically-filtered food porn flash in the pan. Our intention is much more to create cultural (Think: Motorkultur!), long-tailed storytelling.

You wanna join the party? Follow this link!

Two Car Shows On Two Continents In Five Days

Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force

Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force

Wolfgang Würth, smart electric bike

smart electric bikes, Niketown, Beverly Hills

The Jim Henson Company, smart forjeremy

Jet-lagged and tipsy: Mathias "MC Winkel" Winks and some muppet

James Bond Aston Martin DB5 Coupé, LA Auto Show 2012

Decadent lunch with Marcel Winatschek (Amy & Pink), David Fischer (Highsnobiety) and Mathias Winks (Whudat)

"A brand is your friend" — Word.

Slammed W108 with mascara (caption borrowed from Clemens Gleich)

Now, with a Chromjuwelen branding, this Opel Kadett is worth over a million. No — wait: Five millions.

Bon appétit!

Yes, you can. You can visit two car shows (LA Auto Show, Essen Motor Show), three world premieres (Mercedes-AMG SLS AMG Coupé Black Series, Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force, smart forjeremy) and several parties in five days. Here's a quick journal:

• Tuesday, November 27th (early): HAM-FRA-LAX

• Tuesday, November 27th: Arrival Los Angeles

• Tuesday, November 27th: Beverly Hills on smart electric bikes

• Tuesday, November 27th: Presentation Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force

• Tuesday, November 27th: Presentation smart forjeremy at the Jim Henson Company

• Wednesday, November 28th: LA Motor Show

• Wednesday, November 28th: Santa Monica

• Wednesday, November 28th: Departure (LAX-MUC-DUS)

• Tuesday, November 29th: Arrival in DUS

• Tuesday, November 29th: Dinner with Chem-Tools

• Friday, November 30th: Essen Motor Show 2012, meetings

• Friday, November 30th: AUTO BILD Race Night

• Saturday, December 1st: Essen Motor Show 2012, meetings

• Saturday, December 1st (late): Back in Hamburg

• Sunday, December 2nd: BRAINDEAD

• Monday, December 3rd: BRAINDEAD

What I learned: You need a really good condition (err ... really?). And some good friends, who help you.

I would like to thank Mercedes-Benz/smart for the hospitality, Klaus Rasch for saving me from the police in Santa Monica, Thomas Backe and Dieter Hofem for picking me up in DUS, Manfred Prescher and Stefan Müller for the wonderful Race Night — and DOTZ/AEZ for gallons of coffee.

And not to forget — thank you David Fischer (Highsnobiety), Mathias "MC Winkel" Winks (Whudat), Marcel Winatschek (Amy & Pink), Michael Kaune (QVEST) and Matthias Arens (Quality) for teaching me lessons in "Lifestyle, Ego-Blogging and Fashion"!

In The Wild: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

The other day we made our debut with our Chromjuwelen Motor Öl. In the wild, at the Oldtimer Park Hamburg. We are still thrilled, to be honest. It is a huge difference to see a ton of your products at one place, after you played around for a long time with a handful of home-made dummies. Wow.

As well we were priviledged to shoot some campaign images at the Prototyp Museum Hamburg, where the "Fetzenflieger" lives — Otto Mathé's famous racecar we are showing on our label. As I wrote before – if you will ever be in Hamburg, make sure to pay the museum a visit. It is gorgeous. And — btw —the Prototyp Museum sells Chromjuwelen Motor Öl ...

I would like to thank some people: 

• Ronald Szasszer for inviting us to the Oldtimer Park Hamburg and giving us his 1957 Porsche "Ed Parlett" 356 Speedster

• Helge "Motoraver" Thomsen for providing his 1973 Ford "Mad Max" Falcon XB GT Coupe for our Chromjuwelen Motor Öl booth

• Daniel Dimpker (24helmets.de) for showcasing Chromjuwelen Motor Öl at the Stadtpark-Revival Hamburg

• Michael Schade (Oettinger Sportwagen) for the perfect neighborhood

• Everybody who joined our premiere of Chromjuwelen Électrique at the Oldtimer Park Hamburg

At the moment we are working hard on shipping the Chromjuwelen Motor Öl to our stockists and finishing our "Online Store". Tragically one thing turned out to be more tricky than we thought: shipping the oil to the States. The freight charges kill us. So — if somebody reads this who wants to act as an distributor — please shoot us an email!

Chromjuwelen Électrique: Full Version & Bonus Videos

Not all that long ago we made a self-attempt: we eBay-ed a 1964 Imperial Crown and drove it from Los Angeles to Las Vegas – and back to Los Angeles. As you can imagine, we had a blast. You will find the video here. This time we switched to the other extreme: We travelled in a smart fortwo electric drive from Paris to Le Mans (Classic). Yup. Battery-driven. Of course – we know this electrified fellow isn't made for long distances. Even worse – we knew it will not be easy to find enough charging stations. But hey, that exactly was the challenge. If anybody of us speaks fluent French? Er ... no.

My favorite scene? Arthur's tribute to Stephen Brooks and all the dubstep video jockeys at 09:38.

Chromjuwelen Électrique features:

• smart

• Mercedes-Benz Classic

• Blenheim Gang

• Chartres

• Le Mans Clasic

• Frank Jacob (Springbok Sportwagen)

• Jochen Maas

Music:

• La Horse

• "Getting Along"

• mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape

• szoll

• "broke"

• soundcloud.com

• Tarpans

• "Rivers"

• mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape

• Advencher Club ft, Kai

• "Need Your Heart"

• soundcloud.com

• Edvard Grieg

• "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 - I. Morning" (performed by Musopen Symphony Orchestra)

• musopen.org

• EmoShock

• "Kaboul"

• soundcloud.com

All filming & editing: Faust & Heisler. For a full (German) Travelogue visit chromjuwelen.com.

Chromjuwelen Motor Öl: THANK YOU!

It seems we did something properly – as we are getting such a tremendous feedback. We are turning as red as a beet and would like to say THANK YOU to everybody who is supporting us!

• AUTO BILD KLASSIK (Print; 09/2102)

• Blenheim Gang: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

• Cool Hunting: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

• The Dieline: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

• Designbote: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

• For Love And Glory: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl // The Beauty Of A Genuine Product

• fubiz.net: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

• Gear Patrol: Chromjuwelen Classic Car Motor Oil

• Motoraver: Das läuft wie geschmiert

• notcot.org: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

• Packaging Of The World: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl

• The Pixeleye: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl — Pre-Order Now!

• race-dezert.com: Chromjuwelen Motor Öl — Pre-Order Now!

• Stipistop: Otto Mathé feat. Chromjuwelen

I am sure there is more on it's way — I will update this article regularly.

A special THANK YOU goes to Oliver Schmidt and Thomas König, as they are not only supporting us with Otto Mathé's "Fetzenflieger" for our packaging, but also opening their awesome Prototyp Museum Hamburg for our shootings. If you ever come to Germany — make sure you will visit their beautiful museum!

X-RAY MAGAZINE: Hamburg – City Of The Classics

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

The other day x-ray magazine ("fashion business intelligence") asked me if I would like to write an article about "Motorkultur in Hamburg". What a question — of course! This is not only a perfect opportunity to present Hamburg amongst the other featured cities Los Angeles and London, but a good way to thank all those people and places who inspire me every day.

If you ever were looking for a perfect Motorkultur travel guide regarding Hamburg, here it is: Hamburg – City of Classics (English; page 64-67), Hamburg – Die Stadt der Klassiker (German; page 64-67).

Featuring (in alpahbetical order): 

• 20 Flight Rock

• Artistocrat (Zsolt Machat)

• Hafenbahnhof Hamburg

• Hamburg Harley Days

• Hamburger Stadtpark-Revival

• Heliumcowboy Artspace (Jörg Heikhaus)

• PLY (David Einsiedler)

• Prototyp Automuseum Hamburg (Oliver Schmidt, Thomas König)

• Queen Calavera

• Rider's Room (Sven Eden)

• Oldtimer Tankstelle (Alex Piatscheck, Jann de Boer)

• Jules Wenzel

 In this regard I would especially like to thank two persons: Oliver Breitwieser for taking all photos, Sven Wiesner for slamming his Rostkäfer. And yeah, needless to say: I <3 Hamburg.

Chromjuwelen Électrique: Trailer

We had a blast. Thanks to smart & Mercedes-Benz Classic for letting this happen!

The "Director's Cut" will be released September 2nd. In the meantime – here is our (German) Travelogue and a full loaded gallery.