"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
09/22/2016 at 08:51 • Filed to: Audi A5, test mule
2
10|
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
09/22/2016 at 08:51 • Filed to: Audi A5, test mule | 2
| 10 |
Photo Credit: MotorAuthority
A few weeks back, I followed a 2018 Q5 test mule around (of which I recently found more pics of on my phone thanks to “burst mode”), and then I saw but couldn’t get a photo of a Merc (probably CLA). This morning, in rush hour traffic, on a main road, heading towards downtown St. Petersburg, there goes another one. I could not get a picture, but it was the car pictured above, the 2018 A5 cabrio. Based on the camo wrap, it might be the exact same car.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
So what gives? I go from never once having seen one of these test mules to seeing three in about a month. Since when did the St. Pete/Tampa area become a hotbed for testing cars?
It is hot, humid, and the traffic sucks a lot of the time, so this would offer them some good data in shitty conditions. Do they think that no one will notice these cars? People do, because most people don’t know what that wrap is and have never seen it before. The Audi Q5 was literally a head-turner. Everyone was staring at it as it drove by them.
One of my newly found Q5 shots
Anyone have an thoughts on this?
TysMagic
> sonicgabe
09/22/2016 at 08:58 |
|
no thoughts, but is the tuner scene doing anything with these kind of wraps on their cars yet? How long until that starts happening?
|
sonicgabe
> TysMagic
09/22/2016 at 09:02 |
|
I’d wrap The Ranger in test camo, just because... This Audi had manufacture plates, as did the other two, so they were legit test cars.
fourvalleys
> TysMagic
09/22/2016 at 09:04 |
|
I’ve thought about dazzle camo for the rally wagon/track cars, but that’s a little different than this.
The cost is probably the big limiting factor - a one-color wrap is expensive by itself. A printed two-color wrap would have to be a fair bit more than that. And forget about cutting it out of vinyl - that’s a good way to make someone hate you.
Also, let’s not forget that Red Bull F1 did it last year for testing:
|
TysMagic
> fourvalleys
09/22/2016 at 09:08 |
|
ah I bet cost is the limiting factor for the tuner scene. I guess you could lay out a pattern and plastidip around it like some old school lace paint on the side of a van
|
TysMagic
> sonicgabe
09/22/2016 at 09:09 |
|
I think a ranger wrapped in test camo would get all kinds of stuff going on the internet. Is this the next ranger? looks just like the old one? Is ford getting lazy? and so on. I support it
jimz
> sonicgabe
09/22/2016 at 09:22 |
|
they’re well aware the camouflage attracts attention. the pattern is there to make it difficult to pick out specific styling elements.
oh, and to nitpick a little since I work in the industry- a “mule” is a hacked up current-production vehicle meant to simulate a future model for specific testing purposes. These cobbled together Flex/Taurus X contraptions were mules for testing stuff for the upcoming 2011 Explorer:
what you’re seeing is a “pre-production prototype.” The fact that they only have dazzle on it and not vinyl covers means it was probably actually built at the assembly plant and is close to volume production.
Where have all the lightweights gone?
> sonicgabe
09/22/2016 at 11:00 |
|
McLaren still holds the title for best camo. http://jalopnik.com/5978603/the-mc…
|
sonicgabe
> Where have all the lightweights gone?
09/22/2016 at 11:33 |
|
Yeah, that one is pretty fantastic. It should be an option.
|
sonicgabe
> jimz
09/22/2016 at 11:57 |
|
I know what the purpose of the camo is. I’m just surprised that Audi (and Merc) are running vehicles with it in the middle of a busy, populated populated areas. Even though photo of these testers got out long before then showed up down here, these cars aren’t drastically different. If they wanted to test them here and keep a low profile, they should just unwrap the cars. No one would notice them. I understand they might still be trying to hide some bits for various reasons, but down here, no one would notice anther Q5 on the road, even if it looked slightly different. One would assume they just did a bit of custom work to it. Our roads are littered with these cars that have all sorts of aftermarket crap glued to them (we’re super classy in Florida; bet you didn’t know that?), I probably wouldn’t have noticed them without the dazzle camp wrap. Down here, you spend your drive time trying not to get hit and avoiding things in the road that fell off of trucks. You don’t have time to study the details of the can next to you. But when it’s wrapped like that, everyone stares.
Also, from now on, I will call them a “Test donkey” because I am a jackass.
|
sonicgabe
> TysMagic
09/22/2016 at 11:59 |
|
Plus it would cover up all of our custom aero work, I mean dents.