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Photo of the week (2009): Porsche Panamera in a lift

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 21 April 2009 14:22 CAR’s editor Phil McNamara is in China this week, reporting on everything weird and wonderful at the Shanghai motor show. But when he called to say he was pouring over Porsche’s Panamera 425 metres up in the air, we started to think that maybe the jetlag was getting to him. Apparently not – on the evening before the opening of the Shanghai show, a select group of the world’s automotive media was invited to a preview of the Panamera on the 94th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Centre.

CES: Cranking up Harman's QuantumLogic 3D surround-sound system

Yesterday we reported how Audi was readying a lavish 3D sound experience with 23 speakers and 1,400 watts of goosebump-inducing audio power. Not to be outdone, Harman had been quietly developing a system of its own: Quantum Logic 3D brings together 25 speakers and more than 2,000 watts of Tubthumping power to a new car near you, like driving inside Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Sitting inside the demonstration BMW 7-Series that Harman painstakingly lifted into the Studio at the Palms, Global Audio Engineering vice president Phil Muzio explained, "great music is delivered in stereo, yet our consumer research indicates that people enjoy surround sound." QuantumLogic 3D's surround sound expands beyond the boundaries of the vehicle's cabin, providing "a sense of detail and spatial placement that you don't get in stereo." Five height component speakers mounted in the corners of the headliner, and above the rearview mirror, elevates audio beyond the confines of the roof, "almost like you're in a convertible," said Muzio.

What’s a Range Rover ‘Vouge’?

Now the 2013 Range Rover is out in the wild, they’re becoming a common site on our roads and in car parks. So when one of the Cars UK team was sat waiting patiently in the Waitrose car park for his beloved to finish replenishing stocks, he wasn’t particularly surprised to find a nice new Range Rover Vogue slowly pass-by looking for a parking space. It looked a completely standard Vogue – the entry-level Range Rover – with no personalisation of any sort.