That ovoid '96 Taurus while it sold well was overwrought & overdone IMO.
I'm not convinced Volvo's current design language translates to a smaller format - EX-30 Image Unavailable, Please Login
EDITORIAL How Artificial intelligence will take over Car Design I like to think that a good car design is purely instinctual—whether it’s drawn on a napkin at a restaurant or in a more formal atmosphere. But as I watch the growth of AI in many fields I fear car design will be one field that’s ripe for conversion to AI, devil take the hindmost In an article on a MIT website by Brian Eastwood (Mar 6 2023) he asserts “machine learning models can streamline the process — and bring fewer duds to market.” He claims “aesthetics have been linked to roughly 60% of purchasing decisions.” While it is difficult to imagine that a machine can think, he quotes a paper written at Yale that “demonstrates that machine learning models can not only predict the appeal of new aesthetic designs but also generate designs that are aesthetically pleasing or aesthetically innovative.” That paper was co-authored by Yale School of Management professor Alex Burnap and Kellogg School of Management professor Artem Timoshenko. Methinks the appeal to management is that it can generate designs that are highly aesthetically pleasing and more importantly, be generated quickly and evaluated quickly. By generated quickly, I am not talking months.I am not talking weeks.I am not talking days.I am talking hours. And you can lay off a lot of designers. How you ask can the design be aesthetically pleasing? I was watching a WSJ video of the appeal of Tik Tok, the computer program that starts out with thousands of inputs and keeps tracks of how a new member responds and gradually hones something that they will be addicted to. And not all good, mind you, in some cases it sends the young user in a deep hole of depression. It gradually realizes what that user’s interests are and shapes a world for them. Similarly I think when presented with the limitations of the chassis size, weight and powerplant, and with the outline of what audience a car or truck is aimed at, the AI-equipped computer will start with thousands of inputs and, in short order, narrow it down to a pictured clay model. The WSJ article said that in the old days designs, while still in clay model form (though “painted” with a paint like look) were evaluated in person by potential customers in “theme clinics” which they define as “events where carmakers bring hundreds of targeted consumers to a single location to judge designs. Theme clinics can cost $100,000 each, and carmakers need to hold hundreds each year to make sure they put the right designs into production.” I once was invited to a Jaguar clinic when they bought my address by finding out I had a Ferrari.(Should the DMV sell that info? You tell me...) They had five other competitive cars and then the wanna-be Jag, looking like a finished car, and questionnaires to ascertain what the viewers liked and disliked. They can throw all that out with AI-generated predictive modeling: get the right audience online and they can toss out designs scoring low on aesthetics . Looking at computer generated new car designs, not only the shape can be decided, but colors, body type, and image. I saw a frightening show on WSJ about a new app that can be used to copy a style of an given artist. One artist they interviewed was incensed that some cretin developed a program that featured 400 drawings that are in his style and even used his name and is selling the file as a package. So I predict they could feed a lot of Giugiaro designs into a computer, into this program, and then tell the machine “Make me a station wagon, Giugiaro style.” But what about, every so often, when there’s a “sea change” in design, say when in the;’60s, sports cars went from voluptuous to flat planed, like the DeTomaso Mangusta? Can an AI-equipped computer make that jump into a new way of looking at things? For that reason, for making the next sea change, we need to keep some humans at the drawing board. Battles may be fought in court, especially when they use a certain famous designer’s name and drawing style and weren’t planning on paying him or her a cent.The AI merely soaked up their style, and, when asked, can spit out a drawing that you could swear was made by the master. But overall a much bigger factor in refining the designs than in the past will be aerodynamics, with the AI-equipped computer able to predict mile per gallon improvements created merely by changing this and that surface 1/10th of an inch. AI will have the final say-so. The conversation at the Design Center might go like this: Design Boss: I like the sports car but what’s the Cd factor? Human designer: It’s .028. Design Boss (frowning) We need 42 mpg highway. Is that gonna get it?” Human designer: I’ll tell the computer we need to chop off a coupla points. He’ll work on re-shaping that rear spoiler , see if that gets it. The product clinics will still be held but not on site but remotely using those new face masks hat immerse you in an AI- created environment. All over the country consumers wearing them will be judging a design and picking words that fit the designs, words like robust. manly, luxurious, the like. The right words emerging could green light a design. The old way of doing things was , to my mind, more instinctual but the truth is, I am forced to admit we are all creatures of definable habit. AI has a way of soaking up what we know; predicting what we like, and re-arranging, or shape-shifting in effect, what we are looking at so we cannot help but embrace it. What say you?
Utter ***ing fbu*l sh*t! Written by the same useless quants that think clinics are always the answer.
New Porsche By: Tim Stevens When most people turn 75, simply being alive and well is enough of a gift. For Porsche's 75th birthday, however, the iconic sports car company has given itself one hell of a birthday present, a hypercar that the brand says will be the fastest production car ever around the Nurburgring. And yes, it'll be an EV. The Mission X Or it will be, at least, if Porsche decides to build it. This is the Mission X, just a concept for now, but a strong indicator of what Porsche's next moon-shot could look like. Gallery: Porsche Mission X Concept Image Unavailable, Please Login 7 Photos 918 Spyder and its 3,700-pound curb weight, that would mean somewhere in the area of 1,700 horsepower. That's nearly twice what the Spyder was putting down when it became the first production car to do a lap of the Nurburgring in under seven minutes. Again, that's just a guess as we don't yet know the weight, but that kind of power level would make this easily the most powerful road-going Porsche ever, with considerably more power even than the track-only 919 Hybrid Evo made when Porsche uncorked the thing and took it on a world tour of obliterating lap records. Le Mans Inspired Porsche unveiled the Mission X concept on the 75th anniversary of the company, and on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There's a natural link here, with the Mission X's design said to be Le Mans-inspired as well, with doors that open upwards and forward, ala the classic 917. That's just one highlight of some radical styling, which includes a glass bubble covering the passenger compartment that's protected by a carbon fiber exoskeleton. The resulting shape is something reminiscent of Le Mans prototypes of yore but executed with a modern flourish. Inside that dome is pretty remarkable, too, with contrasting-color seats for driver and passenger plus six-point harnesses for both. As a weird, semi-retro throwback to the 959, the passenger dash features a slot for either analog or digital stopwatches. Despite what will presumably be an outrageous amount of power, the Mission X is relatively compact. It's 177 inches long in total and 78.7 inches wide, an impressive 6 inches shorter than the 918 Spyder and more than 2 inches wider. Despite that, its wheelbase is the same. Though electric-powered like the Taycan, Porsche has set the battery pack behind the seats, a so-called "e-core" layout meant to create the same sort of handling dynamics as a mid-engined car. The Competition We've seen already insane levels of power and performance from brands like Rimacand even in production sedans from Tesla and Lucid, so if Porsche is going to build this next-gen hypercar to impress it will need horsepower figures well into four digits. The thought of that kind of power combined with the engineering and racing expertise of a company like Porsche is worth getting excited about. Assuming, again, that the company actually builds the thing. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mmmm.......maybe thats why I like it.......not trying to make a statement, branding won't make it faster.....maybe just Porsche technology will do the necessary....... otoh: WINGS! MORE! BIGGER! SCOOPS! A BIGGER GRILLE! 30INCH WHEELS!
Interestingly, the last Mission vehicle, the Mission R was also rather generic. I wonder if the Mission designers are a different group from the designers that have to keep designing 911s?
Don Schwarz former Design Executive recently passed away. Dean's Garage did a tribute with some fascinating 'design 'stories' from years past. https://www.deansgarage.com/don-schwarz-1929-2023/#comments
From Car Design News Discussion about the future of Design Education from the Chair at CCS in Michigan CDN caught up with Paul Snyder from the College for Creative Studies, the Detroit-based mainstay of car design schools At this year’s College for Creative Studies (CCS) Industry Day, North American correspondent Laura Burstein got some quality face time with the transportation design chair Paul Snyder to talk AI, hiring prospects, and how design education is — and should be — changing. Laura Burstein: You’ve been chair of the undergraduate design transportation program at CCS for more than eight years. You saw the department through COVID and now students have returned full time to the classrooms. What changes have you seen in the past year? Paul Snyder: Most of our internal meetings are still happening by Zoom, but the classroom hasn’t really changed that much. Throughout the COVID period everyone was doing more digital, but we’re trying to get back to basics now a little bit more. We had our juniors doing tape drawings this semester and doing clay models, and the seniors are trying everything. We even dabble a little bit in AI. Image Unavailable, Please Login One of the scale models presented during the CCS Industry Day LB: Of course we need to talk about AI, the elephant in the room. How do you see that affecting design education, as well as prospects for young designers entering the workplace right now? PS: We’re still trying to figure that out. You talk to the OEMs and they don’t want to see any AI in a portfolio. But at the same time, they’re using it internally. So we’re between a rock and a hard place. On one hand you have an aversion and a fear that what you’re looking at may not authentically be the student’s work, and on the other hand you have working designers actually using it. We formed an AI academic advisory team in January and we’ve had two meetings a week this semester talking about this. LB: How has that affected CCS policy and curriculum? PS: We’re trying to come up with a policy, but it’s a moving target. We’re comfortable with the idea that it’s out there and that people are going to use it no matter what we do, but what we’re not comfortable with is not knowing if they’re using it. There’s a lot of talk about allowing it in process. There are so many different design theory processes. We’re going to allow it in some cases. Nothing in a final portfolio, though For example, Kevin Hunter, back in the 80s, filled a balloon with plaster and pressed it between his forearms and then he’d take pictures of that and stretch and morph the forms, [author’s note: done at CALTY’s Laguna Beach studio in 1985, under the direction of studio VP Katsushi Nosho]. And you can do that with AI; you can let it generate whatever it wants and then play with it. So that would be process; your ideas are derived loosely around that and then you’re sketching from it. But AI can also make persona creation easy. Instead of spending hours on Pinterest looking for the right customer profile picture, you can just type it in and see what it gives you. We’ve come up with no solid conclusions other than we’re going to allow it in some cases. Nothing in a final portfolio, though. LB: Any other tools that you’ve leaned on more heavily in the past year? Gravity Sketch has been really aggressive. They sponsor multiple things here and at ArtCenter, and they’re co-sponsoring something in the fall. Whether or not ideating in virtual 3D is right for everybody remains to be seen. I wouldn’t say we needed that, but it’s good we have it. It was certainly critical during COVID because you had senior management being able to check models in China without having to come to Detroit. Image Unavailable, Please Login CDN’s Laura Burstein with Paul Snyder LB: We’re seeing more design positions filled by people who come from other disciplines, such as industrial design, as well as the fashion and footwear industries. How is this affecting design education, and what is CCS doing to ensure that young designers have a broader depth of experience? PS: It’s actually affected institutions in terms of departments. Here at CCS we have an interaction design department, and our traditional graphic design department has been renamed to communication design. Our UX/UI programs come out of communication design and also out of our graduate program. This is a good thing. If students all come to transportation design wanting to be an exterior designer, there’s going to be a lot of disappointed students because we can’t all do that. You have to be diverse… you don’t want to narrow your prospects In my department, I encourage students to diversify. We have one student who’s showing his work today, he can obviously do exterior design but he took a semester and did an agricultural vehicle project sponsored by John Deere. So somebody like this could do an exterior, an interior, and what we call a vocational vehicle – a vehicle with a job. So they’re thinking like industrial designers, they’re thinking like stylists, they’re thinking like UX/UI designers. You have to be diverse and you don’t want to narrow your prospects. LB: Historically CCS has been a funnel into the “Big Three” American car companies: Ford, General Motors, and what is now Stellantis. But you also want to become more international. How do you expand students’ opportunities beyond Detroit? PS: Many of our students would like to work elsewhere, but the Big Three are hungry and they sponsor a lot of projects. I’d love for our students to travel more. We have a sister program with Strate and Pforzheim, and we’re working on one with Coventry. It’s a little bit tricky with Asia because of the language barrier but we’re also talking to a couple of schools in China. Image Unavailable, Please Login Students need to be creative, but also realistic. The real world might be a shock otherwise LB: Along those lines, all of the Big Three have announced substantial company-wide cutbacks. Have you guys felt the pinch at CCS? And as these companies scale back, where else are the opportunities right now? PS: I think we’ve felt it maybe a little bit. We graduated a cohort in December and a few of those students got jobs. Three of them went to Stellantis. Will they be hiring people today? Maybe not. GM didn’t pick up anybody that I can recall in December, and they have been letting people go, so we will see. [Author’s note: GM’s top brass including Michael Simcoe, Crystal Windham, Jeff Nield and Bryan Nesbitt walked through the door shortly after.] Rivian has been pretty connected, and GAC has been pretty aggressive. Kia and Hyundai are expanding rapidly, and the Hyundai group is also diversifying their product portfolio, so they’re looking at students who are interested in mobility in a broader sense. I don’t want my students to learn one thing in school but get to the real world and it’s something totally different LB: Any trends you’re seeing right now with the students who are coming in, and what kind of work they’re doing? Other than AI, of course. PS: I don’t have the hard data, but I think there are more women. And in regard to design trends, we had a GM-sponsored project for GMC. And with that brand, you’re going to expect some rigid surfacing, but everybody was doing these ultra-flat surfaces. I don’t know if that’s a trend, but everything is looking like that this year. I’m like, don’t you guys want to put some sensual surfacing in there, a little bit of curve? LB: I just came from the media briefing for the redesigned Ford Ranger and the designers said they got specific feedback from the global markets that customers wanted a more American-looking truck, so they made everything much more upright, more tough looking. Do you think students are picking up on that as well, especially being based here in Detroit? PS: I do think there’s something about that in the US and Europe. There’s a lot of danger — or perceived danger — out there, so I think that might be part of the psychology of wanting something that looks a little tougher, more efficacious and utilitarian like a Hummer, like a Bronco like a Jeep. But I’m speculating. Image Unavailable, Please Login CCS is helping to nurture the next wave of talent in car design LB: What are some other challenges design education is facing right now? How can institutions like CCS tackle these issues, and what can employers do to help? PS: It’s a dream request, but it would be nice if everybody was on the same page. I don’t want my students to be disillusioned when they leave here, where they learn one thing in school and then get to the real world and it’s something totally different. One will say, “cheat the package,” another will say, “this is totally unrealistic; why is the glass body-colored? You can’t see out of this thing,” so mixed messaging and things like that. People skills to some extent can be taught, but as creatives, we are dysfunctional misfits When I have OEM representatives come down here and say “don’t worry about the package, I just want to see your creative vision,” that’s great. But let’s say someone goes to work on GMC interiors and here’s the package, and you’re not going to have a chance in hell of changing that package, so it’s a very different scenario than what they’re getting in school. Workshops and those kinds of things could really be useful. But the challenge is, students have to cram so much information into four years already. After that you almost need a graduate program to learn how the business really works. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login 1/3 SHOW CAPTION LB: Another thing we’ve talked about a lot is that in creative vocations such as design, leadership skills are rarely taught throughout the educational process. So as designers move up the ladder and become managers, it can create challenges because they haven’t been taught those skill sets. How can schools like CCS better prepare designers to take on these roles? PS: We’ve talked about having a program like that here, it’s in the early stages of discussion. It’s tricky because people skills to some extent can be taught, but as creatives, we are dysfunctional misfits anyway. And I’ll be the first to admit I’m right up there. We call ourselves the “department of bring your whole self to work.” LB: Any other thoughts on the state of the industry right now? PS: We need to get the word out that this is a valid career. So many people still don’t know that transportation design and even industrial design exists. In our MFA program, a lot of the students come from an undergrad in engineering or medicine because their fathers and mothers want them to be very secure in their choice of career. They don’t realise that this is an alternative to all of that, it’s a great field with a lot of future. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looks like the Lexus spindle grill has gone the way of the do-do bird for 2024. A few pics from a teaser ad: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
BARCHETTA VIEW ORIGINAL Image Unavailable, Please Login Ralph Gilles Put Chrysler Back On The Map January 23, 2022 Joshua Brock Ralph Gilles is one of the most influential people working in automotive design today. He’s been working for Chrysler since 1992, and in that span, he has led design efforts on cars like the 300, Charger, and Viper. But his impact goes well beyond the surface. Ralph Gilles has been the definition of stability in an industry defined by change. Image Unavailable, Please Login Ralph Gilles was born in New York City in 1970. Shortly after this, his family relocated to Montreal, Quebec. That creative spark would manifest itself in his formative years. He recalls drawing cars from the age of 8 years old. He only went further down the rabbit hole when he laid eyes on the Porsche 928. He went through the impression the car made on him when he spoke with automotive website Driving.ca. “As a designer, I love how it was ahead of its time; it was the first car with true pop-up headlights, fascias instead of bumpers, extremely aerodynamic shape, aluminum doors, flowthrough cockpit … I forget the name of the designer [Wolfgang Moebius], but it was really ahead of its time. It didn’t so much inspire my designing, but the “idea of designing” and how one car could look so different from another. Back then, the ’70s was a pretty tough time for car design. I had models of it, a telephone of it … I was obsessed with that car.” Image Unavailable, Please Login Porsche 928. Porsche Pressroom He spent his summers living with his aunt in Syosset, New York. She took note of his interest in automotive design and urged him to take the next step. She gathered a few of his drawings along with a letter of interest and sent them directly to Lee Iacocca, who was then the head of Chrysler. His aunt didn’t know much about cars, but she did know about Iacocca because he often appeared on television and was a bit of a celebrity in his own right. Gilles was certain that he wouldn’t hear back from them, but he received a letter in the mail a few weeks later. It was written by Neil Walling, then the company’s director of advanced design. He gave the young Gilles some actionable advice, including scholarship opportunities as well as information on several transportation design programs. He ended with some words of advice, saying that he hoped to pursue automotive design as his portfolio showed immense promise. This is a common thread in the careers of many industry stalwarts. A starry-eyed youth that has aspirations of becoming a car designer writes to the head of a car company. The boss then finds the time in his hectic schedule to send correspondence back. This gives them the confidence to pursue their dreams. Ralph’s story is one notable exception, at least to start. Despite his aunt’s insistence, he put car design on the backburner. Instead, he took the advice of his high school counselors and pursued a career in engineering. He enrolled in a program at Vanier College in Montreal, but only made it six weeks before he couldn’t take it anymore. He dropped out and picked up a job at a hardware store. He stayed in his parent’s basement and spent whatever spare time he had watching television with a bowl of cereal in his lap. Some in this predicament would pivot and try to find another way in, but Ralph found himself becoming content with his situation. He earned a promotion and thought that it could be a viable career path. Meanwhile, his brother Max was going to college for pre-med studies. He came back home to visit in the spring of 1988 and confronted Ralph. He demanded to know what he really wanted to do with his life. Was he going to toil away at that hardware store or was he going to pursue his true passion? He didn’t have to think twice about it. They dug up that letter, partly because it provided moral support, but mostly because it contained critical information. This was in the pre-internet age. They couldn’t simply go to Art Center’s website to find enrollment information. He and his brother had to comb through the Yellow Pages, dial up the schools, and request information the old-fashioned way. The good news is that the College for Creative Studies was accepting applicants. The bad news was that the enrollment deadline was hardly a week away. If that wasn’t enough, Ralph learned that he would have to reconstruct his portfolio from the ground up in order to comply with their submission guidelines. Image Unavailable, Please Login College For Creative Studies Even with all of this in mind, he still decided to take the leap. His parents caught wind of the situation and it soon became a family affair. They bought a drafting table and placed it in the basement, turning his man-cave into a makeshift studio. After 4 sleepless nights, the Gilles family got it done by the skin of their teeth. They then had to sit on pins and needles as they awaited a response. The last-minute bid worked; Ralph was accepted into their transportation design program. Compared to that chaotic admission process, his time at CCS was much less eventful. He gained his first bit of professional experience during his sophomore year when took an internship with Heuliez, a French coachbuilder. He didn’t know very much about them, but he jumped at the opportunity to pay France a visit. He made a full-scale interior mockup for his senior thesis. This is of note for a few reasons. Most people with an interest in car design want to create exteriors, but Gilles took this chance to focus on the inside. He was taken by a “human factors” class that he took. Here, students got a crash course on ergonomics and learned about the ways in which people interacted with their surroundings. The interior study caught the attention of several automakers. He had several offers on the table when he graduated in 1992, but in the end, he decided to go to the company that set him on this road all those years ago. Things truly did come full circle. The man that hired him was Walling, the same man that wrote that inspirational letter. EARLY CAREER He began his career at Chrysler working on interiors. The very first assignment he had was to sketch a speedometer needle. Things quickly ramped up for him, as he contributed to the interiors of several show cars. He worked on the interior of both the Dodge Intrepid ESX and ESX2 concepts. These were iterations in a series of design studies. The company wanted to see how much it could maximize fuel economy while still maintaining the practicality that buyers in the mid-size segment needed. The interior of the 1998 ESX2 takes inspiration from the world of technology. The bulky shift lever that would normally be there has been replaced with a unit that bears a strong resemblance to a computer mouse. These influences can also be seen with the infotainment system. The whole thing looks like a personal digital assistant of the day. Photographs of the interior are hard to come by, but it also appears to have the ability to fold into the dash. This reveals horizontal pinstriping that reinforces the east-west momentum. Image Unavailable, Please Login 1998 Dodge Intrepid ESX2 Concept Interior This motif also dominates the upper third of the interior, seamlessly flows from the IP to the door panel. A vertical variant of this can be seen around the center console, where it provides some much-needed contrast. During the early stages of his career, Gilles also worked on the interiors of the 1998 Jeep Jeepster concept and the Dodge Viper GTS-R concept from the year 2000. His hard work and dedication paid off. In 1999, he was selected to manage Studio 3, a DaimlerChrysler satellite studio in Auburn Hills. He oversaw a staff of 6 designers, 11 clay modelers, and 5 engineers. He also found himself representing the interests of designers during board meetings. Colleagues from other departments were more concerned with numbers and business cases than aesthetics. Many of the topics went over his head, but he didn’t shy away from the challenge. Instead, he sought to immerse himself in a new side of car development. He enrolled in Michigan State University and earned his Master’s of Business Administration in 2002. In addition to becoming a more well-rounded designer, he could now also see things from the perspective of his peers and pitch his ideas more effectively. 300/CHARGER/MAGNUM The team at Studio 3 was pegged to create follow-ups to the cab-forward Chrysler 300M and Didge Intrepid. This wouldn’t be a mere nip and tuck. These new cars would utilize the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive LX architecture as well as the third-generation HEMI engine. The resulting package presented them with a bevy of issues. Studio 3 tried to apply the elements of the cab-forward design language, but it just wasn’t a good match. Instead, they leaned fully in the other direction. An orthogonal form language, upright grille, and towering profile made the 2004 Chrysler 300 a clean break from its predecessor. It wasn’t completely detached from the company’s roots, however. Gilles said they brought a 1955 C-300 into the studio to get them in the right headspace. Image Unavailable, Please Login Chrysler 300 When the car saw the light of day, some thought that it bore more than a passing resemblance to cars like the Rolls Royce Phantom and Bentley Continental. Gilles felt that these comparisons were overblown. In an interview with Toyznation, he went on to say: “We never had a Bentley in our studio and said, “let’s look at that,” you know what I mean. What the irony is, when you come up with the proportions, I mean if you look at a Bentley frontally, it carries five people, it has a big V8 engine, the people sit upright. So all of a sudden, yeah, you have a similar overall silhouette. But I dare you if you put the cars next to each other, there’s nothing in common. Absolutely nothing. But it was one of the problems when we did the research and people said the same thing. The Bentley is easily a 20% bigger car than ours in every measure. It’s much longer, much taller, much bigger. I mean, it’s just the presence. I think that’s a beautiful compliment because I think the 300 definitely has presence, and presence is what a Bentley has, that’s what a Rolls-Royce has. When you see one of those rolling down the road, you’re like “Oh my gosh, there’s somebody important in that car,” you know what I mean? And the 300, at a wonderful price point, has that same respect. And that’s the magic of the car. For $25,000 to $30,000 you can feel like royalty.” He was held in high regard in automotive circles before, but he was catapulted into superstardom as soon as the show car was unveiled at the 2003 New York Auto Show. Black enterprise placed him on their “Hot List” while NV Magazine gave him their Innovation Award. The car itself was named MotorTrend’s 2005 Car of the Year. He shied away from the spotlight, saying time and time again that auto design is rarely a solitary effort. He led the overall development of the project, but likened his efforts to that of a movie director, melding the ideas of his colleagues and putting them in the best position to succeed. “When I was promoted to vice-president,” he says, “the media described me as the guy who penned the 300C. That bothered me because at Chrysler nobody really pens anything, except concept cars. I'm just one designer in the Chrysler pack.” The Charger also made waves when it was unveiled at the 2005 Detroit Auto Show, but for different reasons. Enthusiasts ripped the car for having another set of cars and thought it was a shameless attempt to cash in on an iconic nameplate. The company vehemently defended the decision. Ralph Gilles said: Well, actually, the Charger’s not necessarily about doors. And I guess we expected a little bit of angst when we showed the car with 4 doors. And I think as time goes on people will get it. Image Unavailable, Please Login Dodge Charger We already have some special things worked up for the car that you’ll see very shortly that will underscore the car’s attitude. I have nothing but positive thoughts about this car. I think it’s gonna blow up just as well as the others. Again, it’s all about the attitude. It’s what I would call a 4-door coupe. It’s got a very rakish roof, it’s got a very rakish body/side, absolutely menacing front end – A very athletic body. You have to see it in person, just like the 300; you gotta be on the highway and see these things driving by you, and then people will be like “Ok, I got it now.” So, I’m pretty confident about that car. The Dodge Magnum, meanwhile, was their attempt to bring the American station wagon back to prominence. It was a tall task to make one in the age of the SUV, but Studio 3 took it in stride. Gilles went on to say: “…The design philosophy was to have something that was more steady. Ok, the typical wagon formula is almost like a shrunken down SUV, like a box basically. And we wanted to make the car have some drama. The wagon in our mind was really an alternative to a sedan. A lot of people in our situation, a lot of young men in my studio that are just having young families, they kind of need a car that does everything. They like the handling of a sports car, they like the space of an SUV. They like, you know, the functionality of putting the seats down to carry big stuff once in and go to Home Depot or whatever. So, this car is really a result of, “Hey, what would you do if you had a clean sheet of paper and you needed something that had all these attributes?” And a wagon was like the perfect formula. So, it combined functionality and style like no other. That was really what we wanted to do. And we love it!” These cars made him one of the most talked-about designers in the industry. He received job offers from other companies to style cars for them. Someone else in his position wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Compared to General Motors and Ford, Chrysler is a small player in the grand scheme of things. They also weren’t the most stable company at the time. Around this time, Chrysler run through 7 CEOs. Most people would’ve gone to a larger, more stable company, but Gilles believes that there is value in loyalty. In a 2011 interview with Forbes, he said: “I’m a loyalist. Chrysler is a relatively small car company compared to the others. I like that you tend to almost become a little more family-oriented, especially in Auburn Hills. Over the years, you get to know everybody. I value that a lot. You build respect. You work at a company over 18 years and it’s kind of a lost art. People move on and jump ship to get higher pay grades. I value more the relationships. If you go through a rough patch you know who to call. You’ve got someone who’s got your back because you helped them out three or four years ago on a project. I don’t think our work is done here. Even in the worst of times, I felt that we were actually working away on a lot of these projects that are now coming to light, like the Grand Cherokee, like the 300, like the Charger, the new Durango, even the Ram 1500. We had to reach a lot deeper and that was intoxicating. We had known for years we didn't quite get the best out of ourselves. Having that opportunity to be a part of the change of Chrysler, part of the evolution, the improvement of the company, for an industrial design that's what you live for — to be able to not only affect popular culture with your designs but also to help in the rebirth or the redevelopment of a car company. That’s huge. That’s actually more rewarding to me than jumping over for a pay grade hike. A big title means nothing to me. I’m more excited that hopefully in two or three years people will look back at this management team and say look what they’ve accomplished. There are people a lot like me all over the company, where I come from that have the same mindset. The management is made up of exactly these kind of people. Sergio has sought us all out – the Navy Seal live or die types., believers in the company. He knows by doing that we'll never give up. When you meet as a committee and you look left and you look right and you trust that guy because they've been through a lot with you, it’s great.” FIAT CHRYSLER AUTOMOBILES The ensuing years would test this principle. The DaimlerChrysler marriage soured quickly. In 2007 they sold an 80 percent stake of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management. The Great Recession gripped the industry shortly after and quashed whatever plans they may have had for the automaker. There were some products that were well into development, but for the most part, work slowed down considerably. There just weren’t enough resources to dedicate to the new product. The outlook was just too uncertain. Things changed after Fiat entered the picture. Sergio Marchionne turned the company on its head. Gilles thought that this was just what the company needed. "The people are so invigorated because they just witnessed a horrible existence during our private-equity existence. We were starting to look at the product as a commodity, which is disgusting," Image Unavailable, Please Login 2011 Dodge Charger Projects in the early 2010s included refreshed versions of the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. These kept the brand mainstays fresh and bought the company time until new products arrived. One of these new cars was the resurrection of a legendary nameplate. The recession put the Viper in jeopardy. When Cerberus acquired Chrysler they put the sports car line up for sale. They couldn’t find a suitor before the company merged with Fiat. Gilles thought that this was his best chance at a new Viper. He managed to get Marchionne in an outgoing Viper. He took off and came back about 15 minutes. He wasn’t impressed, but he also didn’t completely rule the idea out. Ralph then showed him a video of the Viper breaking the Nurburgring record and gave him a list of all of the cars that it put away. Things didn’t get too much further than this, at least officially. Ralph began sketching on the project and then had a full-size model put together. He placed it in the styling dome and invited Chrysler personnel to take a look. After this, the project became bogged down by the higher-ups. Ralph knew that he had to take things into his own hands if he wanted the Viper to see the light of day. They carried out extensive focus groups with owners of exotic cars and came away with some revealing insights. He also broke ground on a styling exercise. Projects like this are usually worked on by a select group of employees, but this was a special case. Gilles said: “We opened the Viper to the whole office, and we had six finalists,” he says. “We had one guy lead it, but it was a combination of six designers, plus my work. It was a family project. It wasn’t fair to have one guy have so much fun.” The dozens of proposals were whittled down to six. They didn’t have the money for full-scale, so they made scaled models of each in “Area 51,” a secret room in the studio that is locked down with two keys. The project wasn’t officially approved. When Sergio finally laid eyes on the car, he said “You son of a *****. You went and did this car anyway!” He was impressed with their initiative and greenlit the car soon after. Image Unavailable, Please Login Red SRT Viper GTS at NAIAS 2013 01 by Sarah Larson is licensed under CC BY 2.0 IT The SRT Viper was shown at the 2012 New York Auto Show. It carries that visceral Viper DNA while keeping an eye toward the future. The design team went through the initial development phases with the mindset that it would be sold as a Dodge. SRT became its own department sometime later and the Viper went along with it. In an effort to visually separate it from Dodge, they toned the classic crosshair grille down considerably and painted it black. Gilles wanted to give the car a face, so to speak. In an interview with Popular Mechanics, he mentioned that Vipers of the past used headlights with multiple bulbs. The new one made use of a smoked housing that really emphasized a single one. This helps the car look a bit more focused overall. It has the same exaggerated proportions as its predecessors. The A-pillars are pushed back as far as possible, making the already massive hood appear even larger. The car showcases a completely new interpretation of the organic Viper form language. Light and shadow slither across the curvaceous sheet metal. This is especially apparent in the sweeping motion along the body. It pushes the momentum of the car forward and draws attention to the side grille. The rear of the car pulls out all of the stops to make it look as low and wide as possible. The lights stretch out horizontally, and vents on either side pull the eyes across the area. This motion even stretches onto the profile view. The GTS adds to this effect by framing the entire area in black trim. Image Unavailable, Please Login CIAS 2013 - 2013 Dodge Viper SRT GTS by Micheal Gil is licensed under CC BY 2.0 The SRT Viper also has a bubble roof. This interpretation is more extreme than what you’ll find on the BMW Z07 concept, for instance. It works to draw attention away from the rear window. It dips into the rear glass a bit on some models to draw out the wheel arches on the plan view. Projects throughout the rest of the 2010s weren’t as aspirational. He oversaw design efforts on the Dodge Dart/Chrysler 200 siblings. They were distinctively styled compact sedans that were let down by pretty much everything else. The Chrysler Pacifica, meanwhile, was the company’s first new take on the minivan in nearly a decade. They’ve remained dedicated to the segment even in the face of shrinking market share as well as the dominance of the crossover. The company has seen yet another major shakeup with the creation of Stellantis. A host of other brands have come into the mix, and with the murky economic outlook, their future is as uncertain as ever. Still, Gilles looks forward to the challenge. Chrysler has been shaped by the winds of change, but he’s been one of its rare mainstays. He conquered his self-doubt to chase true passion, brought the brand to the minds of the masses, stuck with them through the turbulent recession, and reimagined a motoring icon. Ralph Gilles personifies the motor city and is definitely an industry icon. Discover more from Barchetta
Pretty cool design from China. Image Unavailable, Please Login The first mass-produced car of Zeekr X officially rolled off, starting at 26,600 USD Reading Time: 4 minutes Qian Jin June 8, 2023 1 Image Unavailable, Please Login News like this to your inbox or phone? Weekly summary to your inbox I want this Never miss and important news Get Instant notification once the news is published. Follow Us On June 8, Zeekr announced the official launch of its first mass-produced vehicle, Zeekr X, 56 days after its initial debut. The company expects to start deliveries of the new car in the middle of this month. The first Zeekr X rolled of About Zeekr Geely has launched the Zeekr X electric SUV in China. Its price started at 189,800 yuan (26,600 USD), has a 66-kWh battery, and can generate up to 428 hp. In addition to the Chinese market, the Zeekr X will be introduced in Europe later this year. Let’s delve into the details of this vehicle. Zeekr X Zeekr is an EV brand under Geely that offers three vehicles: the Zeekr 001 sedan, Zeekr 009 MPV, and the newly launched Zeekr X SUV. All these models are built on the SEA architecture. In 2022, Zeekr sold over 72,000 vehicles, and this year, the brand aims to double its sales while expanding into European markets. Zeekr 001 Image Unavailable, Please Login Zeekr 009 Interior of Zeekr X As an electric SUV, the Zeekr X boasts sporty proportions with its low ground clearance, long wheelbase, slanted A-pillars, and sharp lines. Its dimensions measure 4450/1836/1572 mm, with a wheelbase of 2750 mm. Its design features rear privacy glass, frameless doors, frameless rearview mirrors, and sleek door handles. The interior boasts an 8.8-inch full LCD instrument panel and an electric sliding smart screen measuring 14.6 inches. Additionally, the car is equipped with 50W wireless fast charging for mobile phones. The Zeekr X is available in six body colors: Gray, Green, Pink, White, Beige, and Blue. The Zeekr X offers two electric motor options. The first is a rear motor with 200 kW (272 hp), enabling the vehicle to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.8 seconds. The second option features two electric motors with a combined power output of 315 kW (428 hp), allowing for a quicker zero-to-hundred acceleration of 3.7 seconds. The car is equipped with a 66 kWh ternary (NMC) battery. The rear-wheel-drive models have a range of 560 km according to the CLTC standard, while the four-wheel-drive model can travel up to 512 km on a single charge. Inside the Zeekr X, customers can choose between a 5-seat or 4-seat configuration. The interior boasts a large 14.6-inch floating main screen. Other notable features include a wireless phone charging pad and a gear shifter behind the steering wheel. Power and configuration of Zeekr X Positioned as a compact performance SUV, the Zeekr X is built on the SEA electric architecture. It offers both single-motor and dual-motor configurations. The dual-motor version achieves an impressive acceleration time of 0-100 km/h in 3.7 seconds and has a battery range of 500-560 km. Regarding intelligent driving capabilities, the Zeekr X is equipped with five cameras, five millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars, forming the ZAD driving assistance system. The system offers over ten intelligent driving assistance functions, including straight-out parking. The Zeekr X comes in different trim levels. The entry-level version, ME, features five seats and a single electric motor. It is priced at 189,800 RMB (26,600 USD). While 4WD is not available for this trim, options such as a heated steering wheel, Yamaha sound system, automatic doors, and a B-pillar screen can be added, raising the price to 212,800 RMB (29,800 USD). The other trim level is the YOU version, which offers four seats and a price tag of 209,800 RMB (29,400 USD). It comes with a standard single electric motor, but customers can use a 4WD system for an additional 20,000 RMB (2,800 USD). The automatic doors and B-pillar screen remain optional, bringing the total price to 245,800 RMB (34,500 USD). Source: iTHome
Great piece! I particularly love this; "The people are so invigorated because they just witnessed a horrible existence during our private-equity existence. We were starting to look at the product as a commodity, which is disgusting." Awesome!
Wow the Zeeker X has a lot of features for a cheap (?) car. You can get a center console fridge too Unique in its class, the ZEEKR X has a 5.7L large-capacity in-car refrigerator, with deep freeze, cool refrigeration, and heated insulation temperature modes. Image Unavailable, Please Login Here's a shot of the optional B pillar screen they mention Industry's leading intelligent B-pillar, with a built-in camera, allowing the driver to lock or unlock the car with facial recognition. An integrated touch screen shows charging status, pet mode, and other key functions at a glance. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Haven't talked about the Russkies lately. They had a 'thing' for Americana design as it were. Image Unavailable, Please Login 1959 Volga GAZ 21/3
Here are a few more: https://www.dmarge.com/russian-soviet-union-communist-cars Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
From journalist Laura Bernstein: Image Unavailable, Please Login Mercedes-Benz unveiled the Vision One-Eleven, an electric homage to the C111 experimental supercar first shown in 1969. Initiated by the Advanced Design team in Carlsbad, CA and later finished in Germany, today’s Vision One-Eleven forgoes the wedge shape of the 1970s for Mercedes’ now-signature “single bow” silhouette, with short front and rear overhangs and pixelated, stretched oval graphics in the front and rear. Gullwing doors and a chromed orange paint recall the original car. Designers wanted the sculptured body to sit like a shell on top of highly technical carbon fiber elements. Notably, the One-Eleven concept isn’t a vanity project. As with the C111, it will serve as a test bed for new engine technology. In this case, small lightweight motors made by UK-based company YASA, recently acquired by MB. “The key is, this will enable us to do different vehicle designs, because of the volume reduction,” MB’s CTO Markus Schäfer told me. Will they make a production version? No official word, but I’m betting, as with the C111, there might be more than a few people willing to send in blank checks. https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/mercedes-benz-unveils-vision-one-eleven-concept-1234856243/
