The AMX/3 made its debut at the 1970 Chicago Auto Show.  As we say in the business, this car was not “a runner” — just a pretty fiberglass shell.  However, AMC did make plans to build the car, and sent the body molds to Italian sports car maker Bizzarrini.  The resulting steel-bodied prototypes featured AMC’s 6.4 liter V8 engine married to an Italian 4-speed transaxle.  BMW drove the AMX/3 and said it was the most neutral handling car they had ever tested!  Unfortunately, like so many other installments of Cool Cars You’ve Never Heard Of, this one has an anti-climactic ending.  AMC decided to cancel the program after only five cars were built  (“AMC AMX”).

Speaking as a designer, I find this car very striking.  The character line obviously sets it apart from, say, a Corvette or a Ferrari.  The proportions are befitting of the Italian workmanship, looking like a cross between a De Tomaso Pantera and Mangusta.  One small point: I would love to see this car in a warm silver; I get the feeling that the yellow paint is not doing this shape complete justice…

“AMC AMX.”  Wikipedia. 21 Jul. 2010.  Web.  28 Jul. 2010.

The EPA, formed three years earlier under President Nixon, held the first Symposium on Low Pollution Power Systems Development at the Ann Arbor Marriott in 1973. The vehicles and hardware displayed at this symposium were assembled at the EPA’s Ann Arbor Laboratory;  part of the exhibit took place in the Marriott parking lot itself.  I would love to have been a fly on the wall, listening to the reactions of these gentlemen.  The dramatic wedge shape looks aerodynamic enough, but I’ll refrain from speaking beyond my competence.  As a footnote, Exide is still active in the alternative energy arena — giving their financial support to the Cornell Automotive X-Prize Team.

It will be fun to watch who else gets inspired from the new Evoque.  It has been quite awhile since there was a sporty 2 door SUV.Could this be the return of the Chevy Blazer Extreme?  What other cool 2 door SUV’s would you want back?

At this years Ward’s Auto Interior Conference held in Dearborn the other day J Mays was the key note speaker and brought a little something special to our shores.  The Ford Start Concept was on hand for the first time in the states after its debut at the Beijing Auto Show a few weeks ago.  This concept would definitely give Mini and the Fiat 500 a run for their money.  Look past the fuzzy cell phone pics and hit the jump for some fetish thoughts.

The exterior of the car provides a solid presence despite its diminutive size.  The surfaces are clean and simple emphasizing a more upscale and sophisticated look.  J Mays was presented as the designer who created the original Audi TT and the new VW Beetle.  I can definitely see those influences in this design.  J Mays even referred to the Start as charming which can also be used with the Beetle.  I see this car as being J’s new interpretation of the Beetle and TT, but for Ford.  It stands for everything the Beetle and TT were.  Simple, efficient and to the point.

A new take on familiar lines.

The lighting on the Start is very simple and minimal showing what you can do with some simple LED’s.  The wheels are also very cool.  They make me think of how a steel wheel can be redesigned to actually look aesthetically pleasing.  The design language of the wheel is also transferred to the engine bay in the sea of plastic covering the 1 liter eco boost.

J Mays talked about the interior having only three areas of criteria.  Be driver oriented, no clutter and a three spoke steering wheel.  These items all portray the new “Fun to Drive” mantra at Ford.  Every vehicle from now on must be Fun to Drive.  I like the sound of that.  The three spoke steering wheel and analog gauges speak to the racer in us with functional and easy to use interface.  No crazy 3-d graphics here.  Mays’ talked about this fitting in with the Kinetic design language, but I am unsure how.  I do like the Kinetic language but it is kind of busy and this concept clearly is not.

Could this be the next generation interpretation of Kinetic Design.  It would work well to follow the customer who is buying a Fiesta now.  As the consumer matures so does the product.  This could drive a returning customer.  Overall the Start is a charming small car that will  get you from point A to point B in a “Fun” fashion.

Scott Robertson leads a fantastic life.  Spaceships, aliens, race cars, and video games make up his not-so-average day.  It’s the kind of day that many — or day we say, all? — Designers would want to have just once a month.  With the freedom to draw just about anything he wants, Scott Robertson is an Industrial Designer living the dream.

So, you can imagine our excitement when we found out that he would be hosting a live lecture as a part of CCS’ monthly lecture series in Detroit.  We grabbed every recording gadget that we could find, headed to the art & design school, and prepared ourselves to be blown away.

Scott began the lecture with a little of his background.  His career started out much like a typical Designer’s: attend art school, get an internship (in his case, designing bikes for Kestrel), graduate and get a full-time ID job creating medical equipment and consumer products.  It was humbling to see that his beginnings were as mundane as ours appear to be, which lend to his incredible modesty.

He eventually taught at his alma mater of Art Center College of Design, developing futuristic vehicles as a method to teach his students and use as demo pieces. Realizing how disenchanted he was with creating plastic landfill, he transitioned from product design into the entertainment industry.  His natural entrepreneurial spirit tempted him to create a product that he felt could be timeless, one that wouldn’t have engineering limits or become trash, and certainly one that would allow for more freedom of his personal expression.  Design Studio Press was born, and out of it came his first book: Start Your Engines.

Scott Robertson’s design process isn’t typical.  Rather, instead of creation out of process, he creates out of emotion.  While he may have a vision of a concept to move towards, Robertson often relies on his tools to help him remain creative.  His work in creating creatures for his Alien Race series was based on a happy accident.

“We had a dinner party one night, and I had Photobooth open on my Mac.  With the mirror filter on, everyone took turns making crazy faces.  Humans are hard-wired to see faces in everything around us, so eventually we began turning ourselves into aliens.”

The resulting photos were brought into Photoshop and illustrated into highly-detailed and unique characters.

“That one was an onion.  In that one, my wife was holding an iPod over her eye.” Using several found objects — dead fish, plant roots — he has created over 5000 creatures.  This process netted him an unlimited library of photographs to begin from.  In a live demo on the stage, Robertson crumpled up a piece of paper and turned it into a ferocious, horned beast.

Its this type of thinking that makes Robertson unique.  I was taught to research the heck out of something before beginning a sketch.  Robertson just… sketches, often creating the story and history around the image.  A self-professed analog artist, Robertson works a lot in pen, marker, gauche, but loves Photoshop as well.  He’s recently begun utilizing 3D modeling software suite Modo, but may move on to some other tool soon after.  “I challenge myself to reinvent over and over again,” he says.

Robertson loves the process of inventing and learning.  The moment of discovery is important, but so is refining that moment and sharing it with other people.  Robertson compiles source books of inspirational images.  He’ll modify the heck out of a photo if he likes one small portion of it, and experiments in zoom blur and HDR photography for one-point perspective background images.

Fear of failure, he says, is the hardest step.  “Having the perseverance to let yourself fail allows progress. Having the wrong expectations about work can lead to fear. Leave yourself the proper time to fail and progress.”  Tools like Photobooth and sketching with his left hand instead of his right lead to no expectations.  Experimentation allows for reduced fear.

Through all that, though, Robertson relies on the basics of Design to create his work.

“Every designer needs traditional sculpting & modeling ability to inform their drawing ability, making transition to digital sculpting natural.  Designers need to learn and do as much as possible to be competitive.  It’s not how you draw, it’s what you draw.”

His comments read like a how-to guide for beginners, but the value lasts long into the professional world.

Robertson’s current passion is the development of Alien Race as an IP that he can spread across what he calls the “four quadrants” of the entertainment industry: movies, video games, comics, and toys.  Alien Race is just that: racing on the backs of bioengineered creatures from alien worlds.  He is also working on completing a new book about video game inspired vehicles.

Scott admits that he’s always in “rusty” mode, and that he generally never peaks.

That’s one kind of rust that I don’t think I’d ever want removed.

Scott Robertson presented lectures at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit during the week of April 25th, 2010.  His highlight lecture on Thursday, April 29th, was a part of CCS’ Toyota Lecture series.

Scott can be found online at DrawThrough.com and DesignStudioPress.com.  He has worked on video games (Spy Hunter 2) and movies (Minority Report) throughout his career.

We’ll have an interview with Scott coming soon… stay tuned!

Video courtesy fellow CDF’er Arvind at Driven Mavens

Global cars and parts sharing are the way of the future.  It could go great (Ford is showing a good example of this in design) and it could go wrong (Toyota failures across multiple vehicles), but one thing is for sure.  It is the future and the only way to be competitive.  Another area needed to be competitive is the new premium small car bubble which is blowing up.  Mini has developed and owned this spot but now Audi is getting into the mix.  So who would be next to enter into this class?  BMW of course, oh and by the way they own Mini.  Do you see where I am going with this?

The next Mini platform will be designed so it could be shared with BMW producing a vehicle below the 1 Series.  This sketch from MotoringFile shows a nice interpretation of the new design language led by the new 7 Series.  So as Mini gets bigger, BMW is getting smaller.  There will be no rear wheel drive and mostly likely will not make the swim over here.  So look for it in pictures come 2013.

[source & pic MotoringFile]

As nice as the Pandion is, it doesn’t really read as an Alfa Romeo — for two main reasons.  First, the overall theme bares a strong resemblance to the BMW Vision concept. Yes, these are two different cars.  But the low sideglass with the white-on-black color scheme is a pretty indelible image — one that tends to push distinguishing details toward the background.  Second, the trademark Alfa grille flows into a horizontal slot, resulting in a sort of three-pointed graphic.  If the triangle were trimmed with a brighter accent, this might work.  But the way it is now, the identity looks a bit too subdued.

Still, despite these drawbacks, the Pandion is a well-executed theme.  I particularly like the sculptural framework inside the door jam;  most interior designers don’t consider this area part of their canvas, but they should.  The seat forms match the outside shapes well, and the intricate wheels compliment the clean exterior.  The overall impression is both classic and high-tech.  It’s just unfortunate that this concept has to share the stage with other vehicles that are much stronger examples of the Alfa Romeo brand.  On its own, I’m sure the Pandion makes a far more impactful statement.

“Peugeot”. I love saying that word. It’s sexy in that “I have a sexy French accent” kind of way. Birthing forth from Peugeot is the SR1, a turbo-diesel hybrid that anyone living in Twin Peaks would love.

Spacey, futuristic, and gorgeous.  Peugeot (almost) always makes sexy vehicles that rely on perfect proportion to stand out, and the SR1 does that with a tantalizing extended hood and silhouette.

Peugeot have done something interesting with this concept.  While indeed the silhouette rocks our socks, the incredible details are what really set apart this exterior.  The SR1′s use of slightly 3-D elements and surfaces are “painted on” the bodyside with what can only be described as being similar to the strokes from a palette knife or brush.  The 2-D lines that lead our eyes around the vehicle remind me personally of the zipping arrows that I used for call-outs on sketches.  Indeed, they point to great eye-candy here as well.

What makes the SR1 special isn’t just the exterior; the vehicle’s interior, especially the IP, is outstanding.  Like something out of Mass Effect, the futuristic wrap-around (wood?) is a minimalistic take on Martian landscape, yet the details scream for space ship navigation.  Here’s a prime example of why we love this car: the gauges aren’t gauges… they’re frickin’ crystals.

Atlantis, here we come.

The facts: the 918 Spyder is a hybrid electric engine capable of achieving 500HP, 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, and 78 MPG.  The downer: it’s just a concept (for now) but Porsche admitted that they, too, are in love enough to potentially pursue the vehicle on the open road.

While at first glance there appears to be a bit of Ferrari envy in the front end, it can’t be denied that the 918 is all Porsche.  Taking cues from the 966, the curvature of the hood and haunches is only broken by some of the crisp and dedicated linework around the body. The Spyder looks to be constantly undulating in and our of itself, with slivers of carbon fiber (thankfully not overdone) emerging like fangs from a pit viper.

To say that the vehicle doesn’t have any excess isn’t true.  The rear roofline is littered with all manner of doohickies and plastic, culminating in the multi-layered back end and its brow-like wing.  But that’s just Porsche, you see.  They’re known for controlled excess and overkill.  In this car, they manage to capture the look of a devilish snake (front half) emerging from its skin (rear), perhaps ready to strike at the poor victims ahead of it on the road.

Images courtesy Porsche

The Mercedes-Benz F 800 has style written over it, no really they even included it in the name.  So it must be stylish, right?  You should be able to come up with an attractive vehicle when you combine Audi, BMW and the new swoops of Hyundai.  Yes I just threw in Hyundai when talking about a Benz.  It is exciting though to see a relatively stodgy brand create a vehicle with such emotional surfacing.  The future is looking bright and curvaceous for the brand with the biggest front emblem.

The basic theme lines of the car are nothing really new but are executed in a precise manner.  The complex surfacing looks like Bangle stopped by to touch one more car.  If everything in between these lines was simplified the vehicle would result in a much classier execution.

The rear three quarter has a cool laid back appearance enabled by the downward arc of the DLO and fender crease.  The DLO does appear to sag a bit much in the rear and pinch the front quarter panel.  I think they took this line and added too much crown to it.  The rear lights are clean and simple but mimic too closely Audi and BMW.

The overall proportion of the side view is exciting.  The lines could use some more refinement though.  The front fender crease comes and goes causing some awkward twisting of the surface.  The rocker panel crease appears too flat and loses any dynamic quality.

For a design exercise this is a great attempt by a very conservative luxury player.  Some more refinement will do wonders and help bring in a whole new demographic of buyers.  Let the sport luxury wars begin.

[pics via Serious Wheels, Car Body Design]