car design thread

I acknowledge the execution on the Fiat looks higher quality, with much better fit and finish, but you'd expect it to be so when we're 16 years down the line and with a softer target audience than first generation SmartCar owners were. It's more of a comfortable Riviera car, rather than a stripped out weekend warrior as the Crossblade was. Still... I've been in a Crossblade that wasn't being driven like a bat out of hell and you still need Googles or some kind of eye protection for anything over 40mph because you get dust and debris in your eyes otherwise - my regular glasses weren't cutting it.

I don't see the cute comfy image going at all well with the absence of a full windscreen. The passengers are not going to want to wear helmets/goggles for fear of messing up their hairstyles or looking like trackday enthusiasts - rather ruins the image, wouldn't you say? Fiat should have at least made it a targa, but then I guess that's not too dissimilar from their existing 500 cabrio anyway.

I also know firsthand from owning a small 2+2 (MINI) and a small 2-seater (SmartCar), that the lack of the +2 rear seats severely hinders your ability to go out for dinner with friends in Europe. It's easier to carpool squeezing into a MINI and park that than it is to go in separate cars and try to park two cars that only seat two each, even if they are as small as a SmartCar.

What we have here is a car with no full windscreen, requiring eye protection, only two seats, tiny luggage bay (only enough for your helmets?), and no roof to protect the interior from the elements, vandals, or people who'll throw trash or spit into your interior - so you can never leave it anywhere without worrying about it. If the intent is to be a design statement only... it looks like it's trying to be practical and different while being neither. I like quirky (some would say flawed) cars, but don't see the point of this one.

Sorry John, but it has few redeeming qualities. I'd expect better from a collaboration of such illustrious partners.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

I dunno... it's a common trope, if you will. Unless you think SmartCar reached back and copied what Chevrolet did back in the early 60s (and at least a few dozen others have done both before and since the Corvair Super Spyder).




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I took the cut down windscreen in combination with the high profile of the prominent rollbar at the rear to be an extremely similar design. I would say both the Crossblade and the Spiaggina have a very different aesthetic balance to the early 1960's cars with cut down windscreens.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

I think it's the same thing, but with a modern starting point. Rollbars are "in" now (whether by need or design), and cars are taller. To me the Crossblade and the Spiaggina look like modern incarnations of what has been done so many time throughout automotive history.

Oh, and I don't like either the Crossblade and the Spiaggina... but that's just me. At least the Spiaggina isn't full of 27 random and otherwise conflicting lines down the sides.

 

I detest that short edit window.

 

Could tell by the color scheme on the third one down.

 

The dog dish hub caps will do it every time!

 

Wheels too damn big.

 

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Looks like John got it right the first time.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

You know, I really like this one:

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The treatment of the sides looks very modern - like many recent and current production supercars.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

You were thinking just ahead of the moment - Crockett and Tubbs would've torn-up Miami in that rascal while the TR was in the shop! And the design still better than holds up - just do it in matte carbon for the reboot!!

 

I always liked the noses on Pontiac's. Their logo was just the right shape for well balanced grills. Still wish they had kept that brand and dumped Buick instead. I know, the Chinese market. Whatever...…….I liked the Stinger, big meaty tires yet kind of a feminine design. Maybe it would have sold to women in high numbers?

 

Speaking of Corvettes in Europe...

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/the-1965-mako-shark-ii-is-alive-in-switzerland/

 

That's very cool. Such an influential design. I remember how amazing I thought it was as a boy.
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This small photo was in a click-bait ad today, but naturally, it was not featured in any of the ensuing pages as to what it was. It looks like a "split-window" SUV/sedan creation. Anybody know who designed or drew this vehicle?
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Looks kind of crossover-ish.