Car Design Fetish

Several months, 4000 entries, 87 countries, and 10 finalists later, the winner of Peugot’s Design Competition has been brought to life at the Frankfurt Auto Show. And in the honor of our continued LeMons coverage and the homage that Dshed’s team is doing to the original Marty Mobile, it seemed only right that we report on a vehicle named the “Flux“.

The winning design was submitted by Mihai Panaitescu, a Romanian student studying in Turin. Well Mihai, you done good. The vehicle is a piece of sculpture on wheels. It’s not the most unique design, and we have definitely seen it before from students, but not to this level. The form vocabulary reminds us of boats speeding through soft ocean waves in the Mediterranean: flowing lines, tapering and undulating panels, and fenders that disappear into the water.

Even the shadows that it casts onto itself add to the flavor.

The front of the vehicle is where we have some hesitation. The design is very un-exciting. The main feature is the hood’s dark color flowing into the front, like a tongue. If there was a little more character to the forms here, it would be appreciated.

The rear of the vehicle is interesting. Its single thruster-engine exhaust, the thin surfaces, the wheels’ mechanics peaking at you through voids; all remind us of some fascinating ideas of F1 cars and fighter jets we’ve grown up to imagine.

The interior of the vehicle is nicely executed as well, relying on clean lines and flowing, pass-through graphics and forms. The covey for the XBox 360 also fits well, dictating both the colors and lighting of the interior. As an FYI, one of the rewards for winning the competition is to have the vehicle included in the next Project Gotham Racing XBox 360 game as a drivable vehicle.

Overall, the vehicle stands on is own merits as a great design study. It absolutely oozes Peugeot styling and makes us wonder why there aren’t more design competitions like this one.

Photographs via a2mac1.com