the wind tunnel: innovation or curse

Race cars are designed in the wind tunnel, without any kind of aesthetical premises, and still there are many pretty ones.

Hard to tell what is beautiful and what is not.

 

Good point and thought provoking

Inasmuch as there are sacrifices to aesthetics for want of better aerodynamics, there are moments when beauty in the form does derive out of function. I think this is as much by chance as it can be guided deliberately. A balance must be attained.

What I find disconcerting in some cases are the sacrifices to form throughout a body design that at once possesses areas of beauty next to areas of ugly, or at least areas on the body that are strange looking and incongruous to the unity of the design. The 458 Italia is such an example: Areas on the body look gorgeous, if not overall. But then you look at specific things they've done and realize they chose the wind tunnel over aesthetics, creating a new, sort of "third thing" out of it. Is it ugly or is it a new aesthetic?