car design thread

Jim here is Mr. Earl with the car in question featuring 2 bar Knock Off wheels >

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Guess I'll just keep my old Maytag then........

 

J. decided to leave his adopted home of London where only the Europeans know good design.

Also for J., how does he make a kitchen appliance look like an Audi?

 

I am surprised that Earl's has a manual and Mitchells is an automatic. I also would have thought Mitchell would have the split window, even if it meant grafting it to the '64, as that was his design detail. Some interesting features in the Mecum write up - disc brakes and Mitchell's has a Turbohydromatic instead of a Powerglide.

The 3rd car that should be in this group is the red one of Bunkie Knudsen. I believe that it was done along with Mr. Earl's - convertible, side exhaust, the special interior flor with chrome grid and carpet inserts.

 

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Audi E-Tron GT........(as an Audi fan boi, I'm now in full-on lust mode.....)
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A bit concerned tho about 22" wheels as standard equipment on our crappy/bumpy/worn-out roads......not to mention the wheel styling is a bit OTT...but paint 'em black and I'm OK....

 

That doesn't look like Jessie White! Maybe he was out that day having a drink with Harvey...

 

One of the better looking cars being made today. I have some small issues such as the giant intakes on the front, but for the most part this is well done.

 

Mercedes SLR project by Invisible
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^^^ That sure is a big door cut-out. Wonder if it really needs to be that large? Looks like they may be trying to avoid conflict with the side scoop.

 

You have to wonder sometimes...

Raymond Loewy was a genius at design, yet this is the car he modified for himself.

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Loewy also designed an early safety car concept in the 1970s. Not bad!
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Apparently did fairly well in safety tests. Here, after a 49 MPH head-on-crash:

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A 49mph head on? Wow, I don't see much in the way of energy absorption!

 

I haven't researched what was under that hood. Here is an excerpt from Hemmings about the test:

At a cost of more than $2.2 million apiece, Fairchild delivered both cars to the DOT in early 1972. Both were tested, under full instrumentation, at the DOT proving grounds outside Phoenix.

"The grand finale was the death of both cars by driving them into concrete barriers at 50 MPH," Mike said. "They put them on a rail, fitted a fifth wheel to calibrate their performance, and ran them into the barricade. They studied how the Fairchild cars looked afterward, and then did the same thing with a 1970 Plymouth Fury, which had crash test dummies in it like the ESVs did. After its crash test, the front of the Plymouth began at its own windshield. The engine was in the back seat. The entire front end of the car had been compressed into several feet of smashed metal. By comparison, the Fairchild car's front end was deformed a little and the headlamps were broken. That was about it. The airbags did not fire in the Fairchild ESV, so the dummies were deemed as not having survived, but Fairchild insisted that it was an electrical glitch with the bags, not the car itself."

Both of the Fairchild ESVs were tested in other crash situations until they were destroyed. Despite the 1970s and 1980s shapes, the cars' most vital advances could be found inside, born of military aviation, Mike said. "The padded interior. The annunciator lights on the panel, color-coded, where all the lights come on when you turn the car on and then they all go out, with any light that stays on indicating that you have a problem: That's from a jet cockpit. In an airplane, when all the lights are out, you're ready to go." ​

 

The only other description I've been able to find aside from a schematic is "long crush stroke."

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Dig the Rivian truck & SUV & I don't think $60K is out of line at all. I'm guessing that the new Jeep "pick up" with more or less the same massing and utility is going to be not too much less than this. That frunk is gonna be a bear to access tho -

 

The car that surprised me most this week and in a good way was....the NISMO Leaf!??
Given the starting point, I'm shocked at just how good it looks. Lose the wing & tone down the paint a bit and it could make a great electric "halo" replacement for GTR; and a shooting brake to boot.


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