car design thread

You want to get Roy Lonberger's book on Mitchell. I have the 2 volume set that does an impressive documentation of the work that came out during his tenure.


Jeff

 

Nice!

My grandfather's Polara was a similar color.

 

I found this interesting on a number of levels, and it's from a source that maybe not even the "design geeks" frequent...

The Story Behind GM's Celebrated 'Damsels of Design' - Core77

 

Wow! Thanks!
I've read Roy's blog, guess, the book is quite new!

The 2 volume set is available for reserve, but you already got yours?

That's a nice story!
Guess, women were mostly focused on a design for purpose, not building aesthetics.

Yeah, but that's okay. I'm a little of a car designer myself (I don't have much to show and be proud of, yet). And so when I was studying industrial design, especially aesthetics, my teacher was a kind of Bill Mitchell. Of course, he could draw good, but he was THAT radical in explanation as Roy Lonberger wrote in his blog: short, sharp and quite not understable. The fact is that AFTER you got that done right, got his approval, you could finally GET what he meant. And it's pretty much a wordless art, you must live through it to understand.
So it may seem profane or whatever, but it's the level of refinement in design that is acceptable for you or the head of design. My level is higher than I can achieve myself (being an perfectionist), so it takes a lot of effort for me to get things done to the level I like.

I personally think that a great car design is either cannot be achieved by one man's eyes or it may take too long. Because as an author of design you see only what you meant to draw/create, not what people see. It takes time to drag you off what you meant and perceive the reality. And a great design is always a product of combined designs. I mean, as a sole author you can be close to be great, like in XJ220 - which is timeless, but comparably blank, like there's something small, but important missing in the looks. They feared to find and add it, decided to keep it pure. Pretty much like with the early Countach LP400. I love them both for the pure looks, but it's the paying audience that doesn't appreciate "that something" missing. The XJ220 sold poorly, the value is quite low even today, for the bloody fast car, being only a hair slower than the following McLaren F1. The early years of Countach LP400 were so poor in pre-sales, that Ferruccio had to pass Lamborghini in 1973, and they've kept low through the 70s, until the company was acquired by Mimran bros and they built Walter Wolf's LP400S with flares and Lamborghini Bravo (concept) wheels. The public noticed Countach again, the following success created the bedroom poster craze. Well, you know better.

 

Few videos about the XJ220.

The story
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SokqjOzBRSY[/ame]

Reality
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7jwv3S_cmE[/ame]

 

I must admit, mine was different from that too, he didn't criticize me much. Instead he started his hypnotic technique of "let's start all over again" and showed me some sketches he found acceptable, my job was to find out what he actually meant, as he never tried to explain it in words (maybe, he found that worthless, he's quite experienced). In most cases it was my perfectionism (constraint) that I had to conquer as what he accepted was imperfect to my ideals. Such was the long hard road to understand of what I call "catharsis in visual design". This made a professional approach to design, as sometimes your contractor may want a Daewoo Lanos even if your last name is Giugiaro.

 

That about sums it up!

 

It think this design is absolutely spectacular; especially the constrained detailing!!! When you add it was from 1956 it seems all the more unreal. The horizontal character line down the side of the car is subtle. A winner with all the reach in the world as a design for short people.
Stretch the wheelbase and add a 283 fuelie with a solid lifter cam and it would be sweet. I can see 1970 1/2 Camaro in that profile look...

 

I believe, the '56 mini-coupe was later revised in the mini-Camaro study.

Though the '56 is a much nicer micro-coupe!
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Regarding mini-coupes, that '56 GM concept Cadet (Isetta sized coupe) reminds me about an old soviet design "Sport-900".
It was done in the 1962, fiberglass bodied car with steel/composite chassis and ZAZ-965 running gear. (ZAZ-965 is a kind of VW Beetle with a size of Fiat 500, production started in 1960.)

The design was done by NAMI (national automotive institute) by a small group of enthusiasts, and as in most cases, soviet prototypes are either a little weird or look way too much like their western counterparts. The lack of proper competition in car design is bad for the quality of design.

The car is powered by an air-cooled 900сс V2 with astonishing 27 hp with a 4-speed (from ZAZ-965). The weight was 500 kg. The frame was designed to be quite safe, it features crumple zones and a stiffer passenger compartment (not exactly seen in the drawing, but they promoted it). There were 6 cars made, one for each designer of the project, 4 cars survived.
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The design cues of the "Sport-900" were obviously influenced by Moskvitch 408, introduced in 1961.
Here's a 'Tourist' version - convertible with additional fiberglass roof, which wasn't launched due to an underpowered engine and low demand. The quad headlight M-408 was a nice looking car to my mine mind: a little shy and sad, but elegant - in Italian way. The doors on the convertible were the same as on 4 door.
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Some more of the late 50s - early 60s soviet sketches, some of these have 'Sport-900' ideas. I like this one more than the manufactured one.
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Haha, never seen the ones like this! Finding a good reference about actual design process (with sketches) is really hard. The number of car projects was quite small, much less than in the US.

I think it was the 1959 National American Exhibition in Moscow that started the design thing in the USSR.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APcQpWGzZ9U[/ame]

Something to read about it
The All-American Expo That Invaded Cold War Russia

The soviet car design was pretty much dead by the 1970s. The oil crisis meant that there were less beautiful cars needed, and a new Lada (started production in 1969) was so quick, easy to handle and reliable that it made all other car factories look stupid. Nothing worth mentioning in terms of exterior design was made later on.

____


Out of all soviet creations, I think the 1938-1939 'ZIS-101A Sport' is the most special.

The thing is that the car was made by 4 young ZIS engineers, while still being late course students. The body is a steel one-off, hand stamped on wooden mock-ups, mounted on a specially designed steel chassis. As usual, it was done in their free time and sometimes at night. The tech specs were increased displacement straight-8 (from 5.8 to 6.1 L), first domestic 2-barrel downdraught carburetor, increased compression ratio, performance camshaft and aluminum connecting rods designed to run without bearings. First hypoid rear axle as well. That all increased the output from 110 to 141 hp, the top speed was designed to be 180 km/h, only 162 km/h was achieved during the test run.
Even though it's not amazingly beautiful, it's quite elegant again! A great car for a student project in the very very dark and hard times.
Unfortunetaly, the car was lost during the war.
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