ramp #61:
Love Is in the Air

And at times it all even gleefully goes beyond that. Into the future, for example. Spring has sprung, April showers bring May flowers, making merry in the merry month of May. You get the picture. The perfect ingredients for an optimistic mood. Finally, a chance to get out there again. And break out of rigid mindsets. For a truly fantastic experience of out-of-the-box thinking, we recommend getting the car out of the garage as well. That’s because driving a car is a wonderful catalyst for creative thinking. So says Dr. Shelley Carson, a researcher and lecturer at Harvard University and the author of Your Creative Brain. As soon as you get on the open road, she says, you switch to an automatic state that tunes out the conscious part of the brain so the imagination network can take over. Time to let the mind do some wandering. With insights, bright ideas and flashes of inspiration as the stimulating and exhilarating result. Loosely inspired by Paul Klee, we recognize a line as a dot that went for a drive. With us behind the wheel. With our imagination inspired, and butterflies in the stomach. And if it hasn’t happened already, spring is also when our secret (or not so secret) love of the automobile can blossom into a real amour fou.

Chasing the Passion: on the Road with Lamborghini CTO Rouven Mohr

It was almost exactly sixty years ago that Ferruccio Lamborghini became convinced there had to be a better solution for the clutch in his Ferrari. He also had some very specific ideas about the sorts of technical standards that should be demanded of a sports car if it is to be a lasting object of desire, capable of arousing our passions through more than just extreme design. So he went and built his own sports cars. And because the brand remains as avant-garde and ingenious as ever, we asked Lamborghini CTO Rouven Mohr to tell us all about it. In the process, he also revealed a great deal more.

All Summer Long: a Portrait of the Photographer Markus Henttonen

Sun, sand, the murmur of lapping ocean waves, the salt of the sea in the air and on our skin, the blue tint of the sky that will leave an indelible mark on our memories and our imagination. The longing for freedom and a simple, carefree existence, living for the moment on a warm summer day . . . That describes quite well what goes through our minds when we look at Markus Henttonen’s photographs. With Chris Rea’s “All Summer Long” playing in the background, we have a wonderful setting to talk to the photographer about – and look at – his work.

Timeshift, or: the Electrifying Power of Lamborghini

Did you know that the Revuelto is the first front-wheel drive Lamborghini? Well, in electric-only mode at least. Lamborghini has rewritten the future. And to make everything perfectly clear, it has also ushered in a new era: four power units on board, three of them electric, over a thousand horses of combined power, all-wheel drive, full carbon fiber monocoque, and the highest class of drivetrain this side of the racetrack. The bottom line: a few well-dosed jolts of electricity make the combustion engine car extra hot, not to mention totally responsive in fast curves.

Brand Value(s): Everything that is Near and Dear to Mercedes-Benz

Last year Mercedes-Benz sold a 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé for the record price of €135 million. This makes it the most expensive car ever sold. We spoke with Marcus Breitschwerdt, Head of Mercedes-Benz Classic, about the importance of heritage and the meaning of luxury. If you ask him, by the way, there are even more valuable cars to be found in the collection. But save yourself the trouble: he doesn’t accept blank checks.

The Story of Ronnie and Barbro Peterson

A long time ago, our author Kurt Molzer was driving through the Canadian Arctic with Hans-Joachim Stuck. After they had crossed the Arctic Circle, the two somehow came to talk about one of motorsport’s most tragic episodes: the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on September 10, 1978. A premature start signal led to the collision of ten cars, with Ronnie Peterson’s Lotus going up in flames. Stuck was there. He talks about Peterson. About his wife Barbro. Their story. With all the ingredients of a great Hollywood drama: courage and heroism, victory and defeat, love and death. A story without a happy ending.

Totally Off Track: Driving a McLaren GT in the Snow

Where do you go if you want to learn something about when to step on the gas and when to apply the brakes, about acceleration, traction and countersteering? Finland is a good place to start. Though this story isn’t just about driving. Or about the McLaren GT. But, as always, about life. Most people, after all, never want to get off track. But how else will you ever experience that feeling of floating free that seems to fly your way in a drift?

Amore Californiano: Why You Just Have to Love the Ducati Scrambler

The Ducati Scrambler Icon combines the best of two worlds: California, because it was first launched in the United States in 1962, and then, of course, Italy, where it was designed. We rode it in Spain. Not so bad either. If you want to fall in love, go for it! A Ducati was, is and always will be the most grandiose show-off in the motorcycle world, an industry in which there is no shortage of peacocks. A Ducati doesn’t roar. It makes music. A symphony of sound.