BAM! The pics of the 2010 production RS Camaro reveal were picked up early by our friends at CarTribe, and are about to break the internet.

We’ve seen the concept at the NAIAS, and the mules on the road.  Now, we get to see this beauty all fluffed up and purrrrty!  Strictly focusing on the styling, this car is excellently designed.  From the aggressive retro design, to the tight lines, to the graceful tapering of forms, this design is memorable and instantly iconic.  The individual groups of dual tail lamps are done well, although it would have been nice to space them apart a little more.  The front end follows the trend of modern muscle cars to have the wide horizontal break-up with inset head lamps.

The only real issue I see here is thecrazy section of the side where the surfaces door, windows, and body all come together in an awkward corner.  It creates a slightly forced cut line there.

The interior is all Camaro, placing (sometimes needless) gauges everywhere.  The dual guages in the IP are a nice design touch.  The seats are exciting and fresh.

Overall, I have a hard time disliking this vehicle.  This is the peak of modern muscle car design, and will remain a great design for years after.

Full pics after the break.

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No, this is not the Aquada water car. This is the Luso Motors LM23.
Luso, not generally known for exciting new concepts, released the first images of their LM23 roadster to the public recently.  Our first thoughts were “this car is Product Design, not Automotive Design,” but after a second examination we had a different opinion.

First and foremost, the vehicle images are still just glossy renderings, not actual prototypes.  This instantly takes away credibility from a new product launch — so much more to a vehicle’s appearance relies on the build, as things can change drastically from data to sheet metal.

The vehicle is a giant graphic, thanks to the horizontal color separation from color to black along the sides.  The details are interesting, as the twin exhaust pipes are up high.  The slits along the back behind the seats are an interesting feature, but overall are used to just break up the space.  There is a lot of geometric form language on the vehicle, with no real elements to tie it all together.

Overall, this vehicle has an aesthetic rating of: “meh”.   It’s a departure from traditional vehicle designs, but not in the “OMG I WANNA BUY IT” kind of way.  Nice little details could be carried over into other LM vehicles.

Click the link for more photos renders.  All images courtesy Luso Motors.

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This weeks WOTW (or should we just call it “WOW”?) is Yanko Design. One of the top design sites out there, I’m amazed that we haven’t really posted much about it in the past. Yanko is focused on Designers showcasing their own work. By sending an article, info about your design, or images over to the crew, Yanko posts it or posts about it. The fantastic thing about that is its constant influx of Design-related information: Yanko typically gets information about a product before anyone else.

Think of it as a way for Designers to pimp themselves. Get on Yank = instant notoriety for you or your product.

Great site, great product design focus, and great way to kill an entire Friday afternoon.  Check them out at www.YankoDesign.com

If the auto industry ever wanted a fresh start……I mean when the auto industry begins reinventing how they do business, Apple would definitely be a company to look into for guidance.  I can’t think of too many companies or products now a days (except for the Wii) that can form waiting lines for days to buy a product that has already been out for a year.  Imagine if cars were that sought after.  There’s a thought, get people to dare I say “Lust” after cars again.

Check out the article below from Advertising Age.  They do a great job of aligning the auto industry with Apple.  Let us know what you think after you read it.  Would it work?  It is a great article and a good end note to end the week.  What if the industry……..

What the Auto Industry Can Learn From Apple

IPhone Stampede Offers Lessons in Total Transformation

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“And here we…..GO!” With the Dark Knight movie exploding into theaters July 18, there is plenty buzz about how incredible this movie really is! The latest for the Caped Crusader throws him under the deranged claws of the maniacal, homicidal, psychopathic killer known as the JOKER!

I remember watching the campy 60’s movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward in “Batman” with my older brother for the first time. I was probably around 7 or 8. We would “surf” through the channels, all 13 of them, ripping through that sundial shaped channel knob on our state of the art Zenith TV. Suddenly!!! An out of shape middle aged man in tights and blue satin, dawning the prominent symbol of the bat, along with his panty hose wearing boy wonder side kick, Robin, were climbing the side of a fake Styrofoam brick building. My brother and I looked at each other in complete shock and awe, not because Batman had forgotten to take few laps around the track, but because we could not believe we were watching an actual Batman movie!! We had read the comic books, purchased the action figures, but never saw him in real life!! That was the coolest thing!
Ahhhh….those were the days. How things have evolved and progressed….or in some cases…digressed if looking at director Joel Schumacher’s movies. Recently resurrected from the grave in 2005 with the successful Batman Begins, the Batman Franchise has undergone numerous transformations through the years starting with the campy 60’s series (not to forget the early series in the 40’s as well) starring Adam West and Burt Ward in Batman. Twenty three years later, the world was given a true visual treat with Tim Burton’s perspective on a serious, dark, and gothic rendition of the Batman in 1989.

No matter how campy, serious, or ridiculous the script was; the creators and designers for the vehicles and props were always dedicated to providing the audience with the best they had to offer. Each batmobile had evolved to bring to the audience something new and exciting. Let’s take a look at these films.
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Baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet are all things you associate with the great U.S.  Another big one is our military.  When you think of weapons, tools for the military, what comes to mind…….Hummer.  In my opinion Hummer is one of the great American Icons and is a great way to tie our troops and their contributions to our everyday life.  You can not help but think of them whenever climbing in and out or looking out those squatty windows of a Hummer.

Just like we support our troops, why can’t we support our brands.  This whole talk of selling off Hummer really pisses me off.  I know this is now a global economy, but an American brand owned by a company from India…c’mon.  I guess we should get used to this kind of thing.  I just heard that Budweiser was sold and is now owned by a Belgium Company.  Sure the Belgiums make a better beer, but Bud, the King of Beers is as American as mullets.

Back to Hummer, GM has a gold mine waiting to happen.  Yes, I know about the whole gas thing but hear me out.  Read more

Welcome to a new tradition here on CDf.  We love car sketches as most car enthusiasts and designers do.  With that love comes a large collection of images from the web.  Sketches range from cool student work to OEM development which they do not share enough of.  Every week we will share a range of images from rough early sketch to highly detailed final rendering.

We know that we all learn and are inspired from each other, so we are trying to do our part to help.  Click after the jump to find out this weeks pics.  Hopefully no one minds us spreading their inspirational work.

Bring on the hotness! Read more

Not really. Mopar Enthusiast magazine did some fan service to its readers and mocked up a conceptual 2010 Plymouth Roadrunner concept. While probably-maybe-definitely not going to happen, it raised some great questions about what to do with the Challenger platform next, as soon as the Camaro and the next Stang hit the pavement.

Sketches looked great, and there are some nice design elements, but that rear end has to go (too boxy for our tastes).  The article explains that they took their inspiration from the early 70’s model years.  My dad would be proud.

Take a look at the latest issue of Mopar Enthusiast, and check out images at ChargerForumz.com

Yes, that teaser header is from yet another HOT Mazda concept. This one, the Kazamai, is set to debut at the Moscow Motor Show in just a short while. However, Mazda graced the intrawebz with its presence a few days early, showing off some sexy images.

First and foremost from a design standpoint, Mazda is doing some incredibly exciting things with their concepts. The “wind” theme direction hasn’t gotten old, only BETTER.  The Kazamai excels on all aspects of the form vocabulary: bending, shaping winds criss-cross each other playfully, while at the same time redefining and resculpting the vehicle’s surfaces as they move across.

The vehicle proportions, although a little snouty, have a fresh, muscular look.  This car looks as if it will fly past you on the highway, guaranteed.  And you will be caught staring (also guaranteed).  The vehicle design is pure emotion AND motion.

While only a concept, Mazda is getting closer and closer to reality with their theme.  And although the Kazamai looks like it will speed past anything on the road, the next gen of Mazdas can’t come fast enough.

Click the link to see more images.

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We have all heard of Lego Land but what about actually visiting Lego World, as in World Headquarters.  That is just what Gizmodo was able to do and they got a lot of questions answered.  Everyone has had Legos, in fact I am staring at some on my desk right now.  It is amazing to see how far they have come in design and innovation of a plastic brick and yet still are successful at selling the original design from 1958.  This is truly a toy that will endure the times and last forever (because they are plastic).  I am surprised you didn’t see any in the trash that Wall-e was compacting.  (Great movie)  Check out the article and cure those inner questions of Lego.

Click here for the article.

From Gizmodo….

You sent the questions and now here are the answers. Do you want to know how many bricks are produced per minute? How many bricks have been produced n history? What’s the best-selling set ever? What has been the worst? Do they recycle? How did they survive the crisis that almost killed them? How successful is Mindstorms? What are the actual names of each of the pieces? Why there are no blondes in Lego sets? Why there are extra pieces sometimes? Here’s the definitive mega-reference, straight from Lego.

Thanks for the link CShedGo