car design thread

Nice car but not a fan of vertical rear glass, but that’s just me.

What I was really referring to was the trend of GM cars—I would say started by the first Seville—of the stiffly upright C-pillar and backlight. I found it surprising that this design made it onto so many cars and not just because it’s so bad aerodynamically—see how Chevy and Pontiac had to make NASCAR-special fastbacks from their notchbacks—but because of how polarizing this look was and therefore risky for sales.

Following are some examples I found:
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The GM cars of that era had, in general, very clean modern designs and were pretty much in line with the global trends, including for powertrain. American cars still diverged in size and ornamentation but generally looked space efficient and not overly bloated like some of their predecessors.

I could understand GM trying to distance themselves from the crowd with that C-pillar design but I would expect some potential buyers balked at it. Or maybe not, judging from the mention of “success” in the magazine title.

 

PS: was'nt it the RoNdine? The swallow?

 

Yes, Rondine by Tom Tjaarda (of Pantera fame) at Pininfarina and how they fixed the rear window on a later iteration ;-) and made the rear deck look like the Fiat 124...

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I thought that car was soooo cool and used clever play of surfaces and shapes. I can also see how some may not consider it appropriate for a 'vette and a bit bulky.

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Thank you for those design pictures! I personally think it is a rather interesting design considering what else was around back then.
Also for the correct spelling of the model name again to.

 

Named after a lizard I think.

 

In fact I believe they were going for a lizard skin look for the interior:

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The Bertone Ramarro is an Italian concept car designed and built by Bertone and based on the Chevrolet Corvette. It debuted in 1984 at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The name "ramarro" comes from the Italian word for "green lizard". Wikipedia

 

It's unique, that's for sure.

 

Time for some Ferrari/Pininfarina content. Hopefully not reposts.

From auto&design story on the F40 - @of2worlds will appreciate, judging by his avatar - I really like this sketch from Brovarone. It shows they were working along the lines of the GTO evoluzione before some change of direction towards the squared-up look finally chosen for the F40. The other designs were luckily ignored ;-)

Link: http://autodesignmagazine.com/en/2020/03/design-history-ferrari-f-40/

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I had posted this picture of a 308GTB sketch on the drawing board in a thread from long ago...

Pininfarina Design Sketches

... and just recently found a full-size picture of the sketch from a story about Fioravanti:

http://motori.corriere.it/motori/attualita/18_marzo_26/quel-genio-leonardo-fioravanti-0fd7c4f2-3100-11e8-b98c-6b7fd54f26e4.shtml

The interesting thing in reading the story is that the 308 was designed before the BB. So although the BB’s front is reminiscent of the P6 concept car, the 308–which more closely followed the P6 time wise—has the P6’s quarter scoops and (on the sketch) similar bumpers and rear fascia.

You can see on the second sketch how the 308 evolved to its production configuration and on the last sketch how the BB was meant to have the same crease along the rear quarters (but sans scoop) as the 308 before this was changed to the beautifully smooth convex surface.

Although a I’m a fan of the 308, the BB—with the inimitable sweep of DLO line at the quarter window—is just an amazing design in its simplicity and aggressiveness.

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Above sketch is from:
https://www.auto.it/news/news/2014/11/24-24916/le_ferrari_pi_belle_di_fioravanti/
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I know this is a car design thread, but check out how Yamaha nailed small motorcycles in the '60s.

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Great details on the design evolution of the F40. Thank you for sharing the 'missing link' images in the development done after the 288 GTO evoluzione for 1986!
Though the 288 GTO was really the series production eligibility number of 200 cars required from the manufacturer to run the then cancelled Group B racing program. That series was cancelled because the cars were considered too dangerous.

One of the more interesting comments from the F40 article regarding 'designers' there. >
Aerodynamics thugs gave the car an exceedingly gutsy look.

 

Ferrari had a problem in that people expected a new mid engine model to compete with the newly introduced Lamborghini Miura. When Ferrari introduced yet another front engine V12 at Paris in 1968 the reception was not very positive. People were let down that no mid-engine Ferrari was coming. There was an attitude by Ferrari that the rear engine cars were better left for the racing drivers and not the 'street' customers. It was not until 1973 that the 365 GT4/BB was rushed into production. The flagship 12 cylinder Ferrari had to come before any lower cost V8 model would appear.

 

Not an expert on motorcycle design but I can appreciate the appropriateness of the design and find the front fender support design very clever.

Your post reminded me that I had a Car Styling issue with a huge section on motorcycle design. Looked it up and it just happens to be about Yamaha. It’s a huge article (60 to 70 pages!!) and I recommend it if you’re interested in the subject.

Cover and a few pages:
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Like, like, like! Ha-ha. And those seats!!

 

Is that book an annual series?

 

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a careful look at this second picture shows the whole cast of characters in Enzo Ferrari's world...

 

They were quarterly back in the day. That one is from 1977 and I bought as a back issue from distributor in California.

Looks to still be available:
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