car design thread

What a nice-looking car. I've never seen one of those before.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

I've heard the discussion as: Exner's personal design ethos may have been too clean for the American mass market at the time. The show cars being a better reflection of his thoughts.

Could have been interesting to see what Exner would have done in the first half of the 1960s if he had not been pushed out and replaced by a Ford-ite. Exner certainly had the ability to be on par with Mitchell.

 

How old was he when pushed out of Chrysler?

 

John - Thanks much. I would love to get a closer look at CCS. No immediate plans to be in Detroit, but will keep the offer in mind for future. Thanks again for your posting here. Good stuff.

Kevin

 

Thanks John. Just saw the shots of the 2017 Cadillac XT5 on Twitter. Your work?

 

When I directed my friend and radio co-host Robert Saber to the websites showing the new 2016 Rolls Royce Silver Dawn convertible, he remarked on how much it had similarities to the Bentley Grand we both saw at the LA Auto show

-both have wood on the rear convertible top "hard boot"
though in the Bentley it's got the Chris Craft style grooves

-both have rising rear fender line from side view

-Both have five spoke mag wheels

-Both have a lot of wood on the dash (but the Roller wins in "we have more wood" dept.)

-Both have a line running down the center of the bonnet though in the Silver Dawn it's more noticeable because it's chromed

Both have horizontal exhausts with chrome surrounds, in the Bentley they are ovoid but in the Rolls appear to be rectangular. I think the ovoid (my word for squashed oval) is a little more imaginative than rectangular

The Rolls Silver Dawn, though, has, in my view, a big advantage on novelty with the doors, the rear hinged "opera" door (guess we can't call them "suicide doors" any more) I wonder if Bentley will be so bold as to copy those?

The Bentley Grand headlights look like the miniguns --like they are going to shoot bullets, I don't think Bentley would be wise copying them. On the other hand the LED surrounds on the Silver Dawn headlights are getting to be tiring, so many cars have LED surrounds it's getting to be whoopy-do time.

So my question is: who's copying who? Was the Bentley Grand hastily put together because they knew what the new Silver Dawn was going to look like?

The top views of both cars would be interesting to compare. But I can only find a top view of the Bentley Grand
http://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/gallery/bentley-grand-convertible-previews-soft-top-mulsanne-photo-gallery_2.jpg

Any behind the scenes gossip on what's going on at Bentley and Rolls design studios--or even retrospective comments on why Luc left Bentley only week after winning the design award for concept cars and prototypes at Villa d'Este for the brilliant EXP10 Speed 6 (maybe that was in the works before he accused Ford of stealing a Bentley design for a Lincoln)

 

i.e. Copy the BMW, then add Alfa logo to the big nose( I guess the big nose is Italian style). They should come up with a way to interchange European regulation noses with normal noses so we all don't have to suffer. These new high nose cars are getting really ugly. I don't think the grills could get much larger!!

 

absolutely....
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I really enjoy these Vision Gran Turismo concepts that the manufactures have been doing lately, they remind of the days when show cars were dreams rather than just thinly veiled
production cars.

 

I just found this thread and think its awesome!

So, one thing I would love to know is why is cadillac not doing much of anything right?

The concepts they have such as the elmiraj are absolutely perfect. I had a buddy offer into the 7 figures to buy one when it was at pebble two years go.

I really like the way the new cadillacs are looking. They are a bit to understated, but they are on the right track and are not to garish. They by far have the best american design.

I just wish cadillac would build a 16 cylinder car again or at least a 12 cylinder halo car.

News flash, no one spending 70+k on a cadillac wants a v6. I am all about twin turbo sixes. I love my ecoboost f150 and I get the merrit of the engine and EPA and CAFE and all of that... I do. I understand it better than most. But what cadillac needs to produce is a phantom fighter. They need a halo car, like a ford GT... but NOT a sports car!

If Caddy can sell 100k escalades which are tarted up tahoes by the truck load, they should be able to do a limited run of 200k dollar sedans, or even 250k dollar sedans.

If I was a designer at Ford... I would march over to lincoln. Tell them to find some inspiration from the mid 30s KB models and build 3 bodys on an all new chassis.

1 new huge sedan
1 new huge coupe
1 new huge dual cowl phaeton in extremely limited numbers Not a direct dual cowl but figure out what the modern version of that would be.

Let people tailor the car.

Charge 300-400k for each maybe even 500. Build it with a ridiculous engine, ridiculous craftsmanship at least on par with Rolls.

Use this to actually launch your slightly failed "black label" Actually offer bespoke trimings to the car like Rolls


Final step give one to Jay Z.

Step to make a new continental that sells for the 65-90k range.

Stand back and collect money.

 

John will be our best source for how serious Cadillac was about doing a V12 or V16. I remember there be noise in the press about them giving serious consideration of a V12 during Lutz tenure.

I agree that Cadillac should do this but CAFE standards really screw the American manufacturers. Effectively the foreign manufacturers can do such things knowing that in other markets the penalty is just cost for the buyers. But CAFE puts a "gas guzzler" penalty and then ads it to the overall manufacturer fleet average. It such a car is a success in the marketplace then GM is screwed.

There have been press stories (which may or may not equate to the truth) that Cadillac is going to do their S Class in the future. This is not to be confused with the pending release of the new sedan. Allegedly the new head of Cadillac does not believe that the market is ready for the $100K plus sedan at a volume that makes financial sense.

John can also talk of the internal discussions/arguments of the Mercedes fighter for Cadillac. Realize that Cadillac is not the world brand like Mercedes therefore the economics (and CAFE) are going to be different.