OK, that’s not strictly true, but forgive my indulgence, for tonight, Mercedes might become a bit more cool and youthful.

The firm will, according to New Media Age, launch an ‘integrated ad campaign’ during the ad break for The X-Factor tonight, in an attempt to attract (and improve its image amongst) younger buyers.

The 30-second TV slot will be backed up with further campaigns online, outdoor and in print. Mercedes will take over the YouTube home page and its own YouTube channel will also show behind the scenes films.

Dubbed ‘Escape The Map‘, it apparently, says New Media Age, follows a girl called Marie who’s trapped in her C 63 AMG. Lucky girl? Well, she’s trapped ‘in Streetview’. Not so lucky. Her face is duly blurred, like people are in Streetview

The interactive bit sees viewers to go online and follow the clues to help Marie escape (the Streetview, presumably, rather than the car). The carrot? A prize C 63 AMG, like hers.

For that reason alone, I’ll be following the @girlinmap tweets to see if I can solve it. And if you and I fail? Her image will remain blurred. Boo.

What’s cool is that this is a UK campaign, which David George, marketing director of Mercedes-Benz UK, described to New Media Age as ‘a bold brand-sharpener.

‘The interactive element is vitally important too. We’re talking to a new generation of people who double-screen or even triple-screen – watching TV whilst browsing on their iPad or smart phone.’

It’s something pretty big and significant from Mercedes. Nowadays, millions tweet during the ad breaks for shows such as X-Factor. By doing something intriguing to capture them, the brand’s likely to win crucial extra awareness and, thanks to the add-on interactive stuff, may even encourage people to investigate further.

For a firm such as Mercedes, whose image is a little on the mature side, it’s potentially quite a game-changer. Certainly, I can’t remember the last time a car firm did something like this in such a high-profile show like X-Factor.

Which is why I now have an excuse to watch tonight. After all, I wouldn’t normally be watching. Oh no.

+ VW shows good Karmann

+ Mercedes SLK cribsheet facts

+ Frankfurt IAA 2011: aftermath

Volkswagen has saved the home to one of its most famous cars.

Fittingly, it’s with the car that later saved the brand when the Beetle was substituted from the mainstream. Yes, the Golf.

As of March 18, production restarted at Volkswagen’s Osnabruck plant in Lower Saxony. This has only been a Volkswagen facility since 2009, mind: before then, it was the Karmann plant, which used to produce models such as the Mercedes SLK and Spyker C8 Spyder on a contract basis.

Volkswagen, of course, has worked with the Karmann chaps in the past, and not just on the Karmann Ghia. It’s made the Beetle Cabrio, Golfs Mk1 and Mk3 Convertible, Sciroccos I and II, Type 34 and the sublime Volkswagen Corrado. Quite a VW-centric history (and that’s before you throw in Porsches 912, 914 and 968).

Karmann, though, went into administration in April 2009, due to falling demand. Many of its contractors were taking the cabrio or coupe-convertible models Karmann specialised in back in-house.

Volkswagen revealed it had made an offer to buy its old pal Karmann in October – sealing the deal the following month (with rival roof maker Valmet taking on some of the CC-building facilities). And now, production has restarted… with a new Cabriolet version of the Golf.

1250 jobs have been saved, and 1800 people will be employed there by the end of the year. ‘Many past joint projects unite us with the colleagues here,’ said Bernd Wehlauer, Deputy Chairman of the Volkswagen Group Works Council.

It’s a lovely story, that is set to grow: In the future, Osnabruck is also going to serve as an ‘overflow’ plant for the Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman. This used to be served by Valmet in Sweden, but that deal ends next year when Valmet starts making the Fisker Karma (indeed, it’s already started production).

Osnabruck’s total capacity? 100,000. That’s a lot. What else does VW have planned for Osnabruck, then? That’s the really intriguing part: time will tell…

+ VW Passat 2011: A Flickr road test

+ Volkswagen Golf dials in extra speed

+ The perils of practice on a press car

LEWIS Hamilton is getting a bit of a hard time at the hands of the Oz Police.

OK, he was hooning. It was, as he said, a little silly. But…. He’s a Grand Prix driver. The best in the world. Surely, although rules iz rules, a teeny leniency could have overridden the need to make quite such an example of him?

The fact a motorcyclist was killed on a nearby road did LH no favours. But, at the same time, I think of the Italian mindset. Where such abandon is, well, not encouraged exactly (certainly not if it’s dangerous), but not frowned upon either.

Then, I think back to Gilles Villeneuve, to Gerald Donaldson’s magisterial book, to the tails of how one of my favourite drivers ever used to set a challenge to his team-mates.

Such as? Well, the drive back from Modena to home in Switzerland.? Let’s see, went the challenge, who can bomb our road-going Ferraris for the furthest, without lifting our foot from the floored accelerator…

OK. It’s a bit foolhardy. But tell me there’s not a part of you that also doesn’t think it’s quite cool…

Mind you, Donaldson also tells us of something else the Australian Police wouldn’t like: Villeneuve’s tendency to enter said Ferrari, floor throttle, start it up, dump the clutch and spin-turn away from a standing, well, park.

Just like Hamilton, a total hero. And if you want to know why I used the above image, of the 1979 French Grand Prix, check this out:

Richard Branson’s Virgin F1 (Teenage) Fanclub

Motorsport and Twitter aim for Groundswell

The most amazing save of 2009

WHY only 1000 Citroen DS3 Racings,  I asked the Citroen man at the Geneva Motor Show.

Surely you could make it a permanent addition to the range, underlining its MINI John Cooper Works-challenging status?

The reason why, he revealed, was a blast from the past. It’s a mainstream maker’s homologation special. Like the Ford Escort RS 1600i, like the Alfa Romeo 155 Silverstone, like the Mercedes 190 Evolution. And thus, for me, cool.

It’s even diverted off the production line for final finishing: Citroen Racing (for it is they) send the instructions to the production line men, who add on a ‘parts kit’ of bits that turn a standard DSport into a DS3 Racing.

Changes include:

•    Stiffer springs, lowered by 15mm
•    New-spec front and rear dampers
•    30mm wider track front and rear
•    4-piston brake calipers
•    Drilled rear brake discs
•    18-inch alloys
•    Wing extensions
•    Carbon-fibre air diffuser
•    Remapping software for EPAS and ESP (including ‘off’ button)

Chuck in an interior makeover and STRICT limitations to 1000 units, and you have something that won’t be cheap but will be exceedingly collectable.

It’s quick, too. The 1.6 THP turbo has, at 200hp, 30 percent more power, plus 15 percent more torque. Thank uprated components, tuned turbo and remapped ECU for this. Rortiness is provided by a special exhaust back box.

But what is it homologation for? Next year’s new WRC rules, that’s what. These stipulate more real world cars with front-drive chassis. Kimi Raikkonen will be driving one of these next year. We’ll be able to buy one before that.

Citroen, you’ve sold me: add my name to the press fleet booking list now, please..!

Save BBC 6Music and the Ford Zephyr

Renaultsport past to inspire turbo future?

Why RenaultSports don’t have rear spoilers

GIVE a motoring journalist a van and he’ll be your best friend.

Particularly if you are Ford’s Bob Wright, who controls the press fleet, and distributes said vans to house-moving journos who just so happen to also have a pressing need to get a van out on test.

But, why? Just why is it we love driving them? Is it their simplicity, their great visibility, their excuse for you to drive like an arse, the fact they’re just plain different, the fact they’re always so surprisingly good? Well, probably all of that.

There’s another to add in too, though. They’re stiffly sprung, to help manage those heavy house-move loads. And, thus, handle like big GTIs. Yes, really. The latest Ford Transit is an absolute riot through the lanes; a Mercedes Sprinter is an utter class act.

They’re chuckable, accurate, precise, lithe and fun. And why is this set-up such a welcome surprise, when GTIs and sports cars are so commonplace? Because, reckons a chassis pal of mine, car makers are getting scared of sticking stiff springs on.

Particularly the Japanese, he reckons. Car makers don’t want to offend with the initial thudder of a ride, so will go down on the spring rate to give response frequencies to bumps that are, well, pleasant. Trouble is, they forget to perfect the damping to deal with the after-effects of this – meaning as soon as surfaces worsen, so does the ride.

None of this worries van drivers. They need a set-up that will compensate for their gregariousness both on the way to and from picking up those 12 200kg generators – so, spring rates go up, handling benefits accordingly, and chassis engineers are forced to carefully consider the damping rates to deal with this huge variation.

Vans are stiff. But, because vans are stiff, vans are actually far more intricately engineered than you first may think. Making them a blimmin’ riot of a test car.

If only I could shift my house…

How Ford put the boot into the Sierra

Ford code read

Why Ford Econetics break the rules

… I saw a heavily cloaked test car a few weeks ago on the M42. Looked like a Jaguar, beneath the disguise. It was – the new XJ, which Hilton says will be unveiled in June.

It was going to be a reskin of the current model, but is much more than that. Jaguar’s taken the lessons from the XF – a rehashed S-Type – and applied them here, for an extensive overhaul using the same air-suspension wheelbase.

Styling will wow. Jaguar designer Adam Hatton stressed as much over a beer late last year, at a function in the Cotswolds… and I believe the Malvern-dwelling dude (who rates the Citroen C4, but doesn’t like the new MINI).

There’s even going to be an all-glass panoramic roof.

Jag’s 3.0-litre V6 diesel will feature: this is so powerful and eco, it makes the V8 diesel redundant. Range Rover only for that, then? Seems an expensive way of doing things.

… VW’s said it’s planning a Bluesport range of green performance cars. Like Bluemotion, but faster. Raking in more profits, then.

… Mercedes will sell a diesel version of the next SLK, due in two years. As it’s based on the fine current C-Class platform, expect the brilliant C 250 CDI engine to feature.

… Sweden is not to ban petrol and diesel in 2020. It will ban them in 2030 instead. So that’s why Saab and Volvo are so big on biofuels…

… Top VW product man Ulrich Hackenberg says customers are prepared to pay more for Bluemotion ‘green’ cars. That’s because they’re 5-10mpg more economical. Win-win for VW, then. It gets more cash for each car, which customers are happy to buy in decent numbers.

With such a business model, why would it thus apply the Bluemotion changes to all models, cutting such a profitable revenue stream?

VW’s rivals may snipe and say that ‘all our cars are green, not stand-out green specials’ – but they ‘aint getting the profits of VW. That’s why Bluemotion’s here to stay.

Hackenberg also says customers are understand that they must look at engine technology, not size, to gauge performance. Good news for the downsizing trend.

… Next year, MINI will start selling patterned soft-top Convertibles. Not easy to productionise down at Oxford, but extremely lucrative, I’d have thought.

… Renault reveals the Megane Renaultsport 250’s carryover platform has been re-engineered to take a short-shift 6-speed gearbox. Why go to the trouble? Unless there are future transmission developments we’re not aware of…

… The Golf R32 will lose its heavy V6 for a more eco four-pot turbo. Probably the TTS’s 268bhp unit. It’s for handling as well as emissions, says VW.

… the origins of the TTRS’s five-pot turbo are revealed. It’s actually a tuned-up version of an engine seen in the US-spec VW Jetta. Not, as Audi claims, half a Lamborghini V10. Ahem.