car design thread

Sad to hear about Harry’s passing. I was lucky enough to have him as instructor for a vis-com class at Art Center. I got along with him fine, but did see his wrath on some of students in my class as well as towards the school’s administration ! I always felt that while I was there, the school was being watered down especially after hearing stories from my instructors and how brutal it could be, perhaps this is part of the reason Harry was so angry at them.

He did bring in the original artwork of the Pebble Beach Concours poster posted above , I was blown away on the technique and the detail, he had a truly amazing gift. He will be missed

 

Yes, Mac was bitter. Mad at Keith Teter. Mad with the school president Don Kubly (hand picked successor of the school's founder). I also took it Mac was jealous of Harry Bradley and Harry was no particular fan of him either.

But, my take is that Mac had gotten too disconnected from the current design trends. At times one wondered if his better aptitude was as a car design historian.

 

I've always loved the late 1930s Panhard Dynamics for the "hollow" A-Pillars.

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Same for these late 1940s Fiats for the designer's treatment of horizontal and vertical parallel lines:

Stanguellini Fiat 1100 Sport berlinetta
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EDITORIAL Why not recycle old concepts?

Why not indeed?? After all it's many of these concepts that made people enthusiasts for one marque after another--even if most times they didn't.

So I welcome Hyundai reaching back in the time machine and reviving one show car done by the maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Here's their PR release: "Hyundai has recreated the Pony Coupé concept for 2023, almost 50 years after it was originally presented to crowds at the 1974 Turin motor show.

The rear-wheel-drive coupé is powered by an 80bhp 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and measures 4080mm long, 1560mm wide and 1210mm high - the exact specifications of the original.


It was first revealed that Hyundai could revive the concept at the end of last year, with automotive design icons Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro tasked with recreating the original design.

The Pony was the first car that Hyundai produced by itself, having previously assembled Ford Cortinas under licence. The design was contracted to Giugiaro’s Italdesign firm during one of his most prolific periods, slotting into the list between the Alfa Romeo Alfasud and the Mk1 Volkswagen Golf.

However, Hyundai was keen to have a more exciting version than the utilitarian hatchback for the 1974 Turin motor show, so it ordered Giugiaro to design a coupé version with the same floorplan and mechanical package.



The result was low, looked athletic and had the wedgy design language that buyers of the era had been trained to associate with sports cars.

The new concept perfectly replicates the Pony’s “origami-like” exterior, sleek roofline and wedge-shaped front end.

Its interior is also reminiscent of the 1974 original, with a minimalist design featuring a single-spoke steering wheel and slim, two-tone bucket seats.

The prospect of the Pony Coupé was short-lived back in the 1970, it never making production due to “adverse global economic conditions".

Giugiaro later recycled many of the ideas behind it into what became the Delorean DMC-12.

As well as this new concept, the Pony lives on by inspiring the design of the Hyundai N Vision 74 concept – a hydrogen-fueled ‘rolling lab’, as well as the Hyundai 45 concept that preceded the battery-electric Hyundai

Ioniq 5. "

ONE CRITIC'S REACTION
I still like the original shape more but am willing to concede

the modern bumper laws, aero requirements and such could

force it to be updated. I recommend this be the opening shot--that all

once rejected concepts (rather than be exiled to history's race bin) be available for bidding (even by rival firms) to be

the basis of new designs. I realize this is threatening to the ego

of presently employed designers but don't you want your employer to have a hit? Also maybe the original designer can visit and explain how

he or she arrived at the design. That would be a rare opportunity indeed, but Giugiaro apparently, even at age 83 did just that to meet today's Hyundai designers. Good show, mate.

Opinions anyone?

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Each concept is a statement to its time. Some wear well while other do not for any number of reasons. IF a concept has real relevance, then it has a reason to be reinterpreted in a new form. But, do not go down the retro pathway as that quickly becomes (and became) a dead end.

I should add that the Hyundai car was part of a list of designs that Ital Design did on different makes working that same basic form. It was if he was hoping to get someone to execute that basic design.

 

Sadly, BMW had already lost the plot. The insanity worsens.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Is that black plastic blob on each side of the rear bumper really a bumper? Tacky! Tacky! Tacky!

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Yes, Not only in design but also in vehicle dynamics. BMW's once had a very unique "feel" to them, had a lot to do with steering geometry. But, alas, the news cars are all "numbed" down. Seems the customer base (Suburban moms) didn't like the directness of steering, etc.

 

I did some photoshopping on the new BMW 5 series and I think it looks way better now.
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Your Photoshop skills are getting really good!

 

Who knew they could ever make me yearn for the “Bangle butt”……

 

That was merely foreplay!

 

A slightly mundane item from Bloomberg on Micro cars in Amsterdam. As unexciting as this may be, it will most likely have an impact on auto design.

How Amsterdam Made Room for Microcars
The Dutch embrace of micromobility includes cars so small they can drive on bike lanes. But regulating these unusual mini-machines took some trial and error.

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A microcar in its native element — an Amsterdam sidewalk.
Photographer: Reza Estakhrian/The Image Bank RF via Getty Images

Enjoying world-class bicycle infrastructure as well as excellent public transportation, most people living in Amsterdam can comfortably navigate their city without a car. But for older residents and those with disabilities, biking or walking may be infeasible, and the need for a weather-protected, motorized vehicle is real.

Enter the Canta, a Dutch-built microcar designed in the 1990s specifically for those with limited mobility. The Canta comes in several configurations, including one in which passenger seats are removed so that wheelchair users can enter through the rear and roll up to the steering wheel. According to Dutch law, no driver’s permit or license plate is required to operate one, as it’s classified as a mobility aid.

With a top speed of 28 miles per hour, Cantas are just 44 inches (1.1 meters) wide, several inches narrower than a golf cart. Amsterdamers regularly encounter these tiny machines puttering along a cycle path or parked on the sidewalk, both of which are fully legal. Cantas might get in the way every now and then, but given their unique societal role, they have been widely accepted.

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A Canta mingles with bicycles on an Amsterdam sidewalk.
Photographer: badahos/iStockphoto via Getty Images
Then, about a decade ago, things got messy. The Biro, a microcar from an Italian company, entered the local market.

“Because of that Canta carveout, the Biro just kind of slipped in there and said, ‘Oh we can do that too.’” said Jason Slaughter, an Amsterdam resident and the creator of the YouTube channel Not Just Bikes. “Soon you had Biros basically overrunning the bike lanes.”

The dimensions and price (fully equipped models now run around $20,000) of the Canta and Biro were comparable, but their target customers were very different. “The Canta is really a vehicle for people with disabilities, and they’re not available or even desirable to most people,” Slaughter said in a video about Dutch microcars. “That is very different from the Biro,” which was basically a much-smaller version of a general-purpose car.

Owning a Biro allowed any Amsterdamer to drive in cycle lanes and park on sidewalks — no small benefit in a densely packed city where traffic lanes are limited and car parking spots are an endangered species, with the thousands being repurposed for other uses. The Biro’s lack of a license plate also offered advantages for those who enjoyed anonymity; arch locals began calling it the “Canta for celebrities.” Slaughter said he would often see one parked alongside a Land Rover in affluent neighborhoods.

Hundreds of Biros were eventually registered with the city, and Amsterdamers increasingly ran into Biros in bike lanes, where they could limit cyclists’ visibility, and on crowded sidewalks. Residents and city officials both grew irritated at their owners’ seemingly unearned privileges. “People in wheelchairs couldn’t park because a rich guy in a Biro was in their way,” said Sietze Faber, Amsterdam’s bicycle and road safety policy advisor.

In 2019, an Amsterdam court reached the unsurprising conclusion that Biros were not, in fact, mobility aids for disabled people. Owners had to obtain a license plate, earn a moped driving permit, stay out of bike lanes and stop parking on the sidewalk. Those new rules greatly diminished the Biro’s desirability, leading some owners to sell their vehicle at a knockdown price.

But Amsterdam didn’t want to regulate microcars like the Biro out of existence. From a societal perspective, they may not be as beneficial as Cantas, but miniature electric vehicles were still far preferable to full-sized ones.


“It’s challenging,” said Diederik Basta, Amsterdam’s project manager for smart mobility. “On one side, you want to reduce car trips, and vehicles like Biro could be a nice alternative. But on the other hand, you don’t want to cannibalize transit, walking and biking.”

Indeed, Amsterdam’s commitment to multimodal transportation goes back a long way. In the 1970s, the spiking price of oil and the rising number of children killed in car crashes prompted officials to create dense networks of bike paths, often by repurposing general traffic lanes and car parking. As of 2021, Amsterdam boasted over 760 kilometers of bike lanes, and residents cycled some 2 million kilometers on an average day. The city is today widely recognized as one of the most bike-friendly global cities. Its public transit service is also extensive, recently cited by Time Out as among the best in the world.

Searching for regulatory balance, Amsterdam established a new citywide, two-year parking permit for microcars costing €450 that applicants could obtain in a matter of days. “If you’re buying a Biro, you don’t have to go on a waitlist,” said Basta. “But for [full-sized] cars, the waitlist for a permit can be three weeks to six months.”

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Small enough to park on sidewalks, the Canta is classified as a mobility device, not a car.
Photo: Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Slaughter thinks the city was right to encourage the Biro as a car alternative. “The people who had bought Biros are not the people who are going to be cycling,” he said. “If they don’t use a Biro, they’re going to use a car.”

Outside of Amsterdam, there is a growing market for various kinds of small low-speed vehicles in many European and Asian countries, and they are starting to catch on in the US as well. Microcars come in myriad shapes and sizes, running the gamut from the Swiss Microlino, a “bubble car” capable of hitting 90 kilometers per hour (56 mph), to the golf carts moseying along the streets of Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Villages, Florida. Whatever form they take, microcars are smaller, slower, and usually much cheaper than full-sized automobiles. They may not be well-suited for 30-mile journeys, but they offer an affordable, agile option for shorter trips.

Meanwhile, European cities like Paris and Brussels are following Amsterdam’s lead by adding bike lanes and removing car parking, moves that boost the appeal of microcars. As they catch on, tensions with other modes seem inevitable