Two weeks ago I visited BMW in Munich. They had organised a series of workshops about the developments on electric cars. A lot of talk about the engineering side (batteries, carbon, crash safety) and a tiny little bit about the design. I wrote a special on the subject for Bright.

Last thursday I talked to Laurens van den Acker, Renaults chief designer. His favourite Renault is the original Alpine and he sketches any car from memory, whether it’s a Renault 4, a Lancia Stratos or a Peugeot 407. In the Bright iPad app (not available yet) you’ll be able to see all the sketches Laurens made and hear his stories about the cars he loves.

This coming thursday I’ll interview Renault designs head honcho, my fellow countryman Laurens van den Acker. The man made a mark for himself at Mazda and spearheads the invasion of dutch car designers together with the likes of Adriaan van Hooydonk (the post Chris Bangle BMW design chief). The interview will be featured in the Bright iPad app and will make use of the interactive features of the platform. Now I’m not giving away too much, but I will admit I need to record sound. So I checked my gadget arsenal to see which would work best. My iPhone has a memo recorder, my Kodak Zi8 records sound and my MacBook can do the job as well. But none of them are made for the job and none of them have very good mics. Online I read I really need to use an external microphone. Now it just happens to be the case that I bought a USB microphone along with some other peripherals. I tested it on the MacBook and it worked like a charm. But I suspect Laurens is going to die laughing when I pull this microphone out of my bag.

Bright 33 is out now! Featuring the Volvo XC60 item I wrote about earlier. ‘Can we trust our cars?’ is the question I’m answering. Other work from yours truly about the successor to the Humvee and a Lamborghini that will never be built. Check out the digitally camouflaged QR codes on the front page at your local newsstand.

Last week I had to bring the Volvo XC60 back to Volvo HQ in Beesd and drive my own car back home. Originally I had planned to drive there early on thursday. But I changed my mind and drove there straight from Leeuwarden on wednesday. That would save me precious time during a very busy week.

Halfway there I stopped the XC60 for fuel and locked it. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me: I hadn’t brought the keys to my own car. Annoyance, frustration!

So I called Volvo. But the Swedish would not help me break into my own car. So I googled a 24-hour delivery service. He could bring my car keys the next morning. Fortunately I found a place to crash in Amsterdam.

The next day I waited at Volvo HQ for my car keys to arrive. The courier called me that he was stranded 150 meters from me at a closed off railway crossing. So I walked across a field of mud, past workers breaking up the road, slipped through a gate and shook hands with someone in a white unmarked van at the middle of the railway crossing.

Moral of the story: if you want to save time, think it through, or you’ll end up looking like a drug dealer.

For the upcoming Bright (#33) I’m writing an article on the responsibilities we entrust our cars with. To illustrate I’m testing the Volvo XC60 that can brake and accelerate for you and tell you when you’re dozing off. Marije Kuiper shot the photos last friday. I can’t give away the idea, but it’s gonna be a rocking picture.

I promise this is the last post I’ll write this year on the Porsche Panamera. But for now I’d like to proudly present the Bright.tv item I made with the boys from Schwung Visuell. You can find it here: http://www.bright.tv/series/porsche-panamera

Bright #32 is on sale now. And it’s a great one. Our editor-in-chief Erwin writes about the gadgets he uses to make the transition into fatherhood as smooth as possible, there’s a must read on radiation from DECT phones and wifi devices. And yours truly has tested the daddy of all daddy cars: the Porsche Panamera.

Thanks to PON and Porsche Centrum Gelderland I had a new Porsche Panamera 4S for 24 hours. The adrenaline rush is just starting to fade a little. Here’s the lowdown.

First off: I’ve made a grown man fall asleep, a woman nearly pee her pants and another grown man cry out like a girl. The Porsche Panamera is a limo and a rollercoaster rolled into one. So am I hurting now it’s gone? The annoying answer is ‘yes and no’. A car like this, with a €185k pricetag, a roaring V8 growl and a young face at the wheel makes the world a different place for the driver. Visiting a petrol station one of my passengers got chatted up by the attendant asking where she lives and what kind of car we had. Minutes later a woman walked by the car, turned her head and gave me a smile never reserved for me when driving my Subaru stationwagon. All good so far. Behind the wheel there’s no negatives either. You can cruise along with a subdued V8 rumble and barely making more than 1000 rpm, ever. But at the flick of a switch and a stab at the pedal your limo has transformed itself into a rocketship. First skidding to find solid ground under each tire and then leaping forward with a violent growl. Not a single passenger I had came away unimpressed.

And there’s where it starts going in the wrong direction. The car’s genius, it just turned me into a very unappealing version of myself. Driving by Audi Q7 drivers I couldn’t stop myself pointing and laughing. The beat-up-Golf drivers that were staring at the car were met with a confident smile. And every chance I got to take over 5 or 6 cars in a row, I jumped at.

So where does this leave me and the Panamera. The relationship wouldn’t last and I could literally tell the car: ‘It’s not you… it’s me’. In recent years I’ve discovered it’s the wanting itself that you should enjoy, because as soon as you get something the fun is mostly over. A bit of ascetism wouldn’t hurt anyone, me included. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need my fix of speed every now and then. So access to the Panamera, yes, please! But ownership? Not for me. Reassuringly there’s a €185000 price tag helping me stay a little less annoying.

Today I was supposed to be doing 300km/h in a Porsche Panamera Turbo for my Bright item ‘The ultimate daddy car’. Unfortunately the previous journalist had exactly the same idea and drove the press car into something unforgiving. Net result: no car available for me today.

So for a moment it seemed: No Porsche, no photoshoot, no article. Fortunately the friendly people at Porsche Centrum Groningen were nice enough to provide us with a Panamera Turbo for the photoshoot. Models Bas and Joas were at the scene together with moms, dads and photographer Maurice Mikkers. Results in the upcoming issue of Bright magazine.

In case you’re not into the four door Porsche, you could consider the matt black Cayman for sale in Groningen. In case you’re wondering: it’s not paint, it’s a foil wrap.