car design thread

John - your post of this 'Continental' neatly brings this thread full circle: refer to your first couple of posts 'way back'.....

And I may still stand by my first comment ;-)

This rendering does not say 'CONTINENTAL' to me....
...but then I'm a dinosaur by now; I remember the introduction of the 1956 Continental.

Maybe there is a 21st Century Continental buyer who will swoon over this one......but I'm keeping my betting money in my pocket.

 

The exterior is stunning. Don't like the interior much and absolutely hate the cold ice blue instrument panel - they need to fix that.

Kill it - kill it with fire!

It looks like some of the weird half-melted over-the-top Hotwheels/Matchbox cars I played with as a kid. They were the ones I made the grotesque "villain" cars in the game.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Good looking car, although the tail lights could be better. I bet rear and side vision is also good, something car designers have forgotten about with the thick sills, small windows and low roofs. You can't even see out of new Camaro when you try to back up(never would buy one anyway, but it is the GM benchmark sports GT at this point in time).

Fiskar looks like a Mercedes/Viper with a rear wheel arch/side window gone bad. I wonder who thought that kink would look good, and you would need back up sensors as the the designers once again didn't think of anything but the styling(well sort of).

And what is Acura thinking?? They want to have a smile on all their cars grills??? Disney will have to put one in their next CARS movie!!!

 

interesting observation
the VLF Fiskar was designed by Henrik himself
he's going into business with B. Lutz to build Vette powered 4 dr sedan Fiskers and the Viper based silver coupe in the photos
they told the media the car was completely designed and constructed in just 9 weeks......an awesome task at best, but it looks like 9 weeks worth of work
no refinement at all

 

and I think the 'jury' is still out on this one
the 'auto extremist.com' had this to say about the Continental:
Rants - Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high octane truth...
he's convinced the car is better than the CT6
interestingly, the Cadillac and Continental were across the isle from one another, so one couldn't help but make a comparison
the Conti is well executed to the 9's, but for me too close to the new Hyundai Genesis, A8 Audi, BMW 7 Series, CT6 Cad, etc.
the interior reeks of Lux cues and is inviting, so we'll see if the buying public is convinced.......me, not so much

 

Found a few interesting photos from the 1960's and 1970's....GM had a common related look that even translated into great racing cars(Chaparral 2A, 2C, 2D were based on the below GM #2 race concept). They even used the GM developed Chaparral mesh style on the Corvette show car, something that BBS and the German's later stole.



And best of all, no HUGE UGLY grill!!!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

the Vauxhall SRV is one of my all time faves!
the Chaparrals ewer technological pioneers at the time
secret GM Engineering input.......awesome times

 

More photos of the SRV and the prototype Vette........
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I do believe that Peter DeL. missed it on his criticism of the Buick. The name may be a bewilderment but the car itself is very well done. From what I can see it looks to be one of the really good designs that have been sparse from GM. Too many of the GM work has been ho-hum or just overworked.

Car Design News made a point about the paint formulation on the Buick really helping its presentation by highlighting the surface changes.

 

F1tommy: You need to get your hands on the new Mitchell book by Roy Lonberger.

 

agree
if you're interested at all in automotive design, this is a great book

 

It does look like a good book wich I might buy. My main interest is really race cars and how street/sportscars are influenced by their design and vise versa. I try not to look at the Toyota/Lexus "made in America" and other not so great auto makers displays at the auto show as they make my eyes hurt I did like the Toyota sportscar concept last year at the Chicago Auto show I will admit.


By the way, that Fiskar kind of minimized the lights and used NACA ducts for air, but still put huge openings and a huge grill on the nose. If they fixed that and the side wheelarch/windows it might be a nice looking Viper...I mean Fiskar.


Sebring 1957 and 1965
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

There is a section on the Chapparals in Roy's book. I did not see him say it absolutely but it is sure pointed at, GM Design did a bunch of the designing on those bodies. Roy does talk of how Mitchell and Jim Hall had become buddies. It certainly makes sense when looking at them how well the surfaces were developed. Way too sophisticated in form development. One of the organization listings does note a Rattlesnake Raceway studio.

 

Another Corvette prototype photo from Europe......
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

the great Italian design houses usually seemed to have a difficult time trying to interpret 'American' design.......not always, but often

 

you want 'Bling"?

Lexus has it in abundance......
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

truly awful.
looks like they carved it out of foam and painted it directly.
I can think of a dozen kit cars from the '60s that were more sophisticated than this.
for a "recognized" design talent, this is shockingly bad.

 

Oh my...

What happened to that poor Continental. I haz a sad.

 

u & me both

 

however........I believe I'm in the minority on this one
at the show the consensus was the car was a hit with the interior being the strong draw
the car is well executed, without a doubt, but with so many other choices, it falls short for me

 

I've only seen pictures, but I like it - reserved, understated, and classy. It really looks like a high end luxury car.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

I didn't say anything about it as the design is so boring and uninspired, but that's what people buy now I guess judging by all crap you see driving on the roads these days. I like alot of the Ford/Lincoln designs now, and this one is ok and with another grill could be any 4 door in their lineup or even a Audi or BMW box.

 

I too am unimpressed. Not bad but certainly not anywhere close to what they were capable of. In photos the white of the car used at the show is just wrong. Does very little to show off the surfacing.

When J. Mays went to Ford he was enamored with his prior work at VW/Audi. From the inside the word was that he wanted that look at Ford and especially drove the roof to door frame cross section across the line to be Audi. Did that at Mazda too when they were controlled by Ford.

The one interesting exterior portion of the Continental is the integration of the door handles into the window trim. Sad, the one neat thing is a detail instead of the overall car.

Jeff

 

forgot to mention that detail, yes the door handles are part of the belt line trim, and it's very cool
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

John,

So tonight is the announcement of the Ferrari Design Challenge winner? They tell you to attend being particularly presentable? Any of the other schools going to be present?

Jeff

Saw that the results are given on the Ferrari website. Condolences. They take you to the side and give any discussion? Incomprehensible.