Car Design Fetish

Our friends at Mercedes just shot us over this nice little video interview with Mark Fetherston, longtime Benz Designer and creator of the SLS AMG “supercar”.  In the clip, Fetherston cranks out a sketch of the car while chatting up his thought process, the role of form and function, and how it all fits in with Mercedes own Design process.

OEM Design Studios have been surprisingly candid as of late, showcasing their Designers and inner workings through social media like YouTube, Twitter, and dedicated websites.

Personally, it’s just refreshing to see a designer like Fetherston still working with pen on paper.

Watch the clip above, or visit Mercedes’ Facebook and Flickr pages for more AMG love.

I recently attended a car show and came a cross a 50′s Ford Pickup and while looking at the front end it hit me – It’s the new Ford Edge.  Many people are on the fence with this extravagant front end.  But you can see here that there is a history for it and it does look great on the road.  The new Edge just began arriving on Michigan lots last week.  Now you can tell people why the grill looks the way it does.

The embargo is up, and Ford has revealed the new model year 2011 Explorer.  The new Explorer creates a firm break from current and past generations, styling-wise, taking a more car-like stance and incorporating the new Ford grille and body work.  Streaking, tapering lines define the surface, and a blacked-out A-pillar provides a sort of “360 degree” wrap-around look from the outside, a detail usually seen in the rear of a vehicle.

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At a show dominated by muscle cars and land yachts, I was quite shocked to see this red cheese wedge zip by, hardly making a whisper.  Turns out I’ve seen this car on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  Can you say forty to fifty miles per charge?  No, friend.  This is not the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

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A few weeks ago, we featured formfreu.de as our Web of the Week.  This blog has generated quite a buzz in design circles, most notably for its amazing photos and great attention to detail.  Formfreu is the brainchild of German designers Thomas Sälzle and Markus Haub.  They recently took a quick time out to talk to Car Design Fetish about their process, their vision, and what drives them as designers…

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The name Matra is synonymous with F1 and Le Mans engines that sound like symphony orchestras.  Turns out their handiwork can also be found in this rare gem, the shapely Djet (no, that’s not a type-o).

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The Volt is getting ever so close to the real thing.  Here it is parked at a GM engineers house waiting to be plugged in.  I must say the car is starting to grow on me.  The styling is nothing ground breaking but it does have a fresh proportion on the road.  It is also quite refreshing to see it in a different color.  Only a few more months to go until the GM “Savior” is released…..

Pegaso may not be a household name like Seat or Hispano-Suiza, but they did produce a number of gorgeous sports cars – in between cranking out their commercial trucks, tractors and omnibusses…

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A tree creates some blurry cross-car reflections on the hood of a Rolls Royce.  Great material reference.