Car Design Fetish

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.

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This car makes me want to buy a big stack of orange canson.  C3 meets F-type — in an orange grove.

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In another quantum reality, the Jensen Interceptor was never produced.  I know, I know.  The horror.  Pictured above is an intriguing glimpse at what might have been, the Jensen P66 prototype.

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Caprica is the only new show my wife and I watch every week  –  and if we miss it, you can bet we’ll be watching it on demand the following evening.  This Battlestar Galactica spin-off is as notable for its design as it is for its acting.  The Caprican society is technologically advanced, with their virtual reality clubs and robot butlers.  But this high-tech look is cleverly balanced with some inspired prop choices.

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Wow!  This car looks like it jumped out of a Syd Mead painting.  And I’ll bet dry ice comes wafting out when you open the door.  All that’s missing is a soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer — and some lasers.

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CDF made an appearance on the latest episode (#26, if you’re keeping track) of the RoundAbout show, a podcast about cars, car culture, and news.  The gang at RoAb approaches automotive news from a more light-hearted, entertaining angle, so when we were asked to appear on this week’s episode speaking about the “unique” automotive design at the recent Geneva Motor Show we couldn’t say no.

Have a listen, or the Sbarro concept car will come and get you.

The Geneva Motor Show reminded us that just as “less is more,” the inverse is just as, if not more true: more is definitely less. Aston Martin takes a tiny Toyota iQ and decks it out in full luxury garb and yet: somehow worse. Mansory adheres flashy pieces of golden chrome to a blue Rolls-Royce and creates a monstrosity. And the Sbarro Autobau is an abomination worse than Pontiac could have ever dreamed. Plus researchers come up with an ingenious solution to identifying potholes as asphalt disintegrates in our Blind Spot, and our Stupid Car Trick is a vomit-inducing exercise as a 15-year-old gets a brand new Camaro SS.

Click here to visit the main page (with video!) or play the audio below.

Play RoundAbout Episode 26

Download MP3 | | |

Featuring: Colin Bird, Zach Bowman, Dali Dimovski, Eric Trytko

This is something that should be taught in every classroom.  I love the back and forth between these brands (BMW and Audi).  Their marketing is a great example of some friendly competition.

[via Autoblog]

While we’re not normally in the process of posting music videos, this latest from band OKGo is one to share.  The band, famous for their YouTube antics, has recently been allowed by their record label, EMI, to post the video for their single “This Too Shall Pass” online.  The three and a half minute video features some incredible Rube Goldberg machinations — bowling balls, dominoes, manikins, and paint guns — in a clip that will make any designer want to start penciling similar contraptions.

Oh, and there is a car in there somewhere, just for good measure.

Visualization techniques are constantly evolving.  It started with stone in cave, then pen to paper, then computer modeling and now we are finally getting into the hologram arena.  Holograms have always teased us in movies such as the landscape being spun around in the movie Avatar.  We are so close to having that capability.  This video shows a new form of holographic visualization used for architecture.  Imagine the possibilities of it in the automotive and product world.

Picture going into a sales meeting and showing the customer this.  Get a full size hologram of a car and show multiple versions in a clinic without ever having to make a prototype (maybe then the price of cars would come down).  This kind of visualization could greatly speed up the development process.

Holographic Architectural Imaging by Zebra from Core77 on Vimeo.

Here is some more info on the product from Freshome.

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Being an F1 fan, I’ve always been familiar with the name Ligier.  Their French blue cars were a fixture on the Grand Prix circuit for years.  Turns out they also made a production sports car:  The Ligier JS2.

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