car design thread

I saw a book on Bob Peak, the fashion illustrator, at Art Center College, written by his son and it has the two or three Ferraris he (re) designed for Coco Chinetti to sell, including the Tre Posti but it also had three or four small pictures of more mundane Ford cars that looked like they were built as full size models or maybe even running cars. I heard that, at some point, he was considering giving up drawing movie posters and car illustrations and becoming a full time designer but didn't want to take the cut in pay and probably have to move from near NYC. I wonder if Detroit car designers at the time resented some "outsider' being brought in...

It is odd on this one page bio it doesn't mention the car design

https://bobpeakgallery.com/about/

 

It really more closely resembles an aircraft than a car. Interesting, but I'm not sure I'd want one. By the time you're going quickly enough for all those aerodynamics to actually make a difference, you're going to be arrested or killed when you're hit by a distracted Toyota Prius driver talking on their cellphone.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

He was an illustrator. Illustrators do not think in 3D form resolution. The designer has to think in not only what is seen in the presented view but the resolution that is unseen "around the corner".

Bob Peak did go far further than most in doing car design because they actually became real. It was probably good that his work was executed in Italy where the artisans interpreted what they were given.

 

Good effort and certainly far better than a lot of what is being introduced by everyone. Generally it is cohesive without getting wonky anywhere. Has enough subtlety that it is not one glance sees everything there is to know either. They could have pushed this further though.

 

NEW AUDI A8
I got excited when a colleague told me there was a new Audi.
But when I went to the internet I saw a very ordinary car. Here’s my initial reactions. Anybody got another opinion?

FRONT: Big “maw” grille at least not broken up by bumper, but shape is not the most pleasing. The designer brags it has a one piece surround.
Good chrome trim on the air inlets adjacent to the grille. Headlight surrounds are LED, but you wonder why they can’t wrap the LED around the entire light?

THE REAR : The horizontal taillights are expected, an odd shape, not rectangular. The chrome bar all way across adds a bit of bling, not objectionable in a price class where chrome separates you from the lower priced fare.

SIDE VIEW: What you expect in a sedan.The slanted in door with a ledge seems to be to give the body side form a fuller look, a cliché by now but not as exaggerated as on the Camaro. Mag wheels look excessive busy.

The side view is nothing new, but at least the decision to go chrome on the outside shape of the windows and flat black on the pillars emphasizes the overall shape.
I couldn’t find a picture of the interior but on the factory website the designer talks about going heavy on touchscreens so I am afraid I won’t find any good old fashioned knobs. Hey I own a flip phone!
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Not sure about phoning it in as much as they have run their course and have not got a "next" figured out. It would be interesting to the proposal to final path to understand how many "next" got pushed aside.

There are some nice things, in my opinion:

Significant arch and flow in the DLO across the doors.

Tried to be a bit aggressive in the nose/headlight treatment. Maybe not as great as it could have been but at least not just a basic development area.

The upper is not a gun slit.

Looking some more it makes me wonder if J Mays would be happy how close the Audi and Ford designs have become. It was one his objectives when he came to Ford.

 

Those wheels look like they came off my Norelco electric shaver. I was hoping the new Accord would go a bit more like the current Civic.

 

I'm wondering where they are going to fit an engine, transmission, and brakes!

 

Agreed. I want my car to look like a car. Once it looks too much like a spaceship I lose interest.

 

There was one driving around Albuquerque when I was a kid... saw it many times.

They built about 50 of them and 'loaned' them to regular people to drive for several months.

Jay Leno, of course, has one of the few that were not destroyed after the test.

 

So very awkward to say... but... Lincoln did it better... so awkward

 

Kia sure built their brand quickly in the U.S. - could be Ford's adopting same strategy of riding the Bentley-design gravy train ...?
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I held the same view when the lincoln came out and still sort of do...

However... the back of this audi looks similar to the continental... and I don't know... now all I can personally see is a lincoln without the dumb door handles and a big gaping grill

 

Im sorry... I just can't get over the headlights. They look like such a mistake. I personally don't think it goes with the rest of the design. The car just looks like an awkward lizard or something. I know thats very school boyish but... thats just what I see.

To me... the design is great... and then the headlights make the car look like a cartoon character...

It does not invoke the most amazing machine ever built... it does not invoke... I will lay down the worlds fastest lap time and go head to head with F1 cars. It just looks like a lizard from a Pixar movie that when you smack its head one eye ball does circles.

 

I was researching the one off two seater Rolls Hyperion one off he designed at Pininfarina. I saw his name attached to the design and looked up his name and saw a report that he went to Ford to head up Advanced Design in 2016. Is he still there? Was it unusual he did such an important assignment at Pininfarina when he was only there a short time? What are some of the other memorable designs he has created?