Jalopnik Question Of The Day: Is GM Designer Vicki Vlachakis Hotter Than The Pontiac Solstice?

Is GM Design Manager Vicki Vlachakis better looking than the cars she designs? We’ll call it the Ralph Gilles Effect (we’re comfortable enough to admit he is better looking than a Chrysler 300, if just barely). Vlachakis is the pen behind the recently launched Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky convertibles. Described in this flattering Freep article as “Part car geek, part Malibu glam girl,” her work has definitely been turning heads. House & Garden magazine recently named her one of America’s top 50 tastemakers, but we must ask… is she to your taste? More importantly, is she more tasty than the car she helped design — the Pontiac Solstice? To put it in perspective, we’ve provided both a Vicki Vlachakis gallery below (provided by the always big pimpin’ GM) and we’ll use Ford design guru Peter Horbury, seen here, as the control subject for “average looking car designer.” – Matt Hardigree

Is Vicki Vlachakis Hot Or Not Gallery

It’s 12:30 P.M. I sat down with the origional thought of writing about a different car, but as I browsed my books of classic cars the Mark II just spoke to me. From time to time we get fixated on certain cars. My fixation of late has been old Lincolns. I can not think of another car more fitting to be on our blog. Low, clean elegant, etc. To me this design is timeless. It looks as fresh today as the day it was drawn. I can only hope to someday design a car that has some of the qualities of the Mark II

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Preface to this letter I am about to post. We have a friend who is one of the oddest people we have ever met. We love him, but he is weird as hell. He is a little paranoid, a little over weight, a little older then us, and much more special. Besides these few traits, he is also a chronic liar, so everything that he has written in his email is one big fat fabrication in his mind, but here is the best part……. In time he begins to believe his lies, and takes them as absolute fact.

Here is Jason’s recap of our night to Chris.

Chris,

We had a really good time last night. Some people we know from the
gym were up there and every one got a tad bit typsy. You should of came up.
I get the feeling sometimes that you get pissed or paranoid when other
people are around when I approach. This makes zero sense to me as your one
of my best friends and I enjoy it when you do come out.

Peace out!
Jason

Chris’s reply, ( here is the Comedy )

Jason,
I just do NOT like going to bars…
I’m almost 36 and have simply burned out on the type of environment
that is present at bars, including the noise, the tobbaco smoke, and
the usual obnoxious jagoffs that are always present at any bar -
particularly one trying to exude a “big city atmosphere” in a stuffy
little
backwards burg like city X.

A NON smoking coffee shop is fine, the burrito place or other places
where one can sit and talk are awesome for me, but at this point in my
life,’being that I am under specific, direct orders from one of the top
cardiologists in this country and probably the world to NOT CONSUME
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES OF ANY KIND EVER, combined with my documented
asthmatic allergies to tobacco smoke, there is just no point for me to go to bars.

Perhaps when you are 36, you will feel the same. Perhaps not.

Since you are still of an age where you enjoy these things,
I encourage you to do so. But please understand that I just have
no desire whatsoever to go to bars anymore, particularly on
weeknights.

Chris XXXXXX XXXXXXXX

He is a sick sick man…..

The Dodge Demon is set to be released at Geneva. If you do not already know DCX is trying to get excitment built up in Europe before they officially release the Dodge brand there. This vehicle I can only guess is going to go head to head with the Mazda MX-5, and Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice. I am sure it will use one of DCX’s global shit box engines, that I had the displeasure of driving in the Dodge Calliber about a month back. ( Chrysler’s 2.4-liter world engine, producing 172 hp and 165 lb-ft ) not world class by any ones standard. I can only assume with this lathargic choice of engines, that Dodge will continue with it’s lets try and sell everything for under $20K theory. Hey if it works great for you Dodge. Now lets get to design.

Designers with their baby.

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Yesterday Mazda released photos of the new Mazda 2, for production release in late 2008. The sub-compact car is just one of the many that are coming to the US. GM, DCX, BMW, Toyota, Honda, VW, and now Mazda. Mazda is going to be releasing this car right around or near release of many of these other Sub-Compacts are coming to North America.

The design is starting to follow Mazda’s “FLOW” philosophy, also looks very close to BMW’s Flame surface treatment, what ever you call it, it works. This is a very well proportioned 4 door vehicle, with some nice design elements in the rear, with the matte black color break. The car has more wedge then I have ever seen in a production vehicle. Mazde is trying to give it a very sporty look with all that wedge. I will hold further comments until I see this in person.

Scott Digital

This is a subject that has been on my mind of late. I grew up lusting after American cars. Not the shit boxes of the 80’s but the 60’s Lincolns, 40-late 60’s Caddy’s, all those beautiful Mopar Muscle cars, and so on. So my question is what happened to American design? Think of the Streamlined traines of the 1920-60’s.

Now that is design. Think about the old Lincolns and Ford’s

There was emotion, passion, innovation in those designs. They were either HOT or not. There is something about that huge clean slightly crowned slab side of sheet metal that makes the Lincoln just ooz sex. It is subtle yet brutal. The detailing is just right. Everything is exposed, not hidden behind plastic. Minimal yet detailed. That was an era when America was not afraid to make a statement. They were saying this is AMERICAN, this is what we think about design, and we don’t care if you like it, it suites us just fine.

Now American design is more about pleasing everyone, and apealing to no one. What happened to knowing you were right and going with it? Global econ, massive tooling costs, and so on and so on. No that is not it, we have become fat like the Romans on our own excesses. You can make a car just good enough that is sells, and well that is OK because everyone gave it there best try. We put men on the moon, we dropped the Atom Bomb, but in 2007 America the great can not produce automobiles that people want to buy.

There is some hope though, and I am happy to say we like what we are seeing. American compaines have realized that the Europeans do European design better then we do. The Asian companies do their design better then we do. So where does that leave us?………. That leaves America producing American cars for the world. I do not hear Renault apoligizing for producing quirkey French cars, and neither should we.

My hope has come from

Ford, and their New Interceptor, Fusion, and Edge

There are many more examples both from GM and DCX ( even though DCX is now German Owned) We are not there yet, but if some of the more relevent concepts get built, I forsee a bright future for the American car.

Always lead never follow.

Scott Digital

Here is the link to Edmunds

Here are the photos.

Bravo Pontiac! Well done, now don’t mess it up when you finally go to production.

Scott Digital

2008 Scion xD
The successor to the forgettable xA lands with a new xD nameplate for Toyota’s youth brand. Scion’s smallest offering will use a 1.8-liter 128-hp I4 connected to either a standard five-speed manual or optional four-speed automatic transmission. Visually, the xD is highlighted by sharp lines, wheel flares and larger 16-inch tires. Inside features plenty of storage compartments and a standard 160-watt Pioneer sound system. Stability control and traction control are the only two available factory options.

So Scion wants us to believe that it is the car of choice for the Hip Hop generation. Sponsoring hip hop conventions, art shows, graffiti shows, music concerts, etc.
So, my question is besided marketing hype, what the hell does this car have to do with my generation???

How do plastic wheel covers, uninspiring design, horrible performance, and minivan like proportions make this vehicle “cool”, oh yeah spend $10,000 modding it and it will look cool, I forgot. Sorry Scion

Click here to check out the AutoWeek Coverage

CarDesignFetish.com does not try to post every image of every car at every autoshow because there are so many people who just do it better then us. We will however provide every link we can for every autoshow, making us your one stop shop for everything car design.

Click on the linkie to check out all the coverage, and later in the week we will be posting some design commentary on the show.

Here is a favorite of mine though.
Sexy Sexy………