Detroit/London pt2.

On with the show..

1-Strange niche vehicles with debatable relevance.

-BMW X6

This’ll be a big hit with those who already like BMW’s. It looks slick, for sure. Of note is the flush greenhouse and the muscular arches, though ‘flame surfacing’ seems to be fading fast. Apparently there’s ‘bugger all’ rear room, thus making it a kind of 4×4 coupe, on stilts. Expect to see this clogging-up school roads in London soon. How about a new city-car BMW?

-VW Passat CC

Comments as above, minus the stilts. Looks the same as a Passat, but less room, in a bigger car. . right. Actually, the more i see of this car, the more it reminds me of a slightly sharper Peugeot 607,(or more unkindly, a Chyrsler Sebring..) not a bad-looking exec, but overlooked here in the UK;

2-Nic(h)e cars.

see what i did there..

Dodge Charger Tooling about Detroit without any camo on – this is the real thing, and thankfully emerges unmolested from the concept mentioned in a previous post. I Love it. It’s not the most environmentally sound car, and it’s hardly moving the game on, using, as it does, blatant retro references to its 1960’s parent. But really, who cares? This is why car design is fascinating. In no other industry can an updated 40-year-old design create such a stir.

Mitsubishi Concept-RA This took the best cues from the Lancer Evo and the previous cX concept and evolved them into a good-looking coupe.

The slight OTT snout on the cX concept;

has been toned down, successfully, to fit with the more pleasing coupe proportions. Mitsubishi came back from the financial brink a couple of years ago – this car would be another move in the right direction for them.

Fiat 500 Won tickets to the launch party at the London Eye on Monday.

There was, of course, a lot of ‘build up’. Which included a free Fiat poncho and a hot-drink voucher…jeez, thanks guys..you shouldn’t have! some cool video montage of Fiat 500 past and present;

Bands included Vibrance, The Feeling (cool) and Mika (no comment).

The climax was a Pearl white Fiat500 being driven on stage with some flame effects….

And a car was slipped into one of the Eye-Pods. The Director of the Design museum was on hand to talk about the car’s style, it’s cultural significance, and how amazing it was, generally.

Afterwards my mind must have been stuck on a retro tip..spotted this weird ’80’s art-dustbin on the south-bank..flashback to weird-science;

New Year, New Gear

Hope Christmas 2007 was a good one for you. Had a most pleasant week in the West country doing Christmas stuff; eating, drinking, walking, watching crappy films, eating, drinking, praying for snow. Seems like months ago. Already.

Anyway, Detroit’s here and now. I’m not there, but wish I was. (weird, to wish yourself in Detroit, but there ya go..)

Scrambled’s Detroit design digest – part 1

Like most bloggy stuff, I’ve culled these pics from an array of sources. Some design-related observations follow. Feel free to agree/disagree with any opinions expressed!

Mercedes GLK – precursor to Merc’s BMW X3/LandRover Freelander rival. This looks strangely inelegant to me.. not helped by the old-skool wheels. It’s a lucrative niche to be in, but what’s missing are Mercedes classical proportions. It looks quite Japanese – not a bad thing, but to my mind it’s not that far off a squarer Subaru Forester…I don’t see the progress;

Hummer Hx concept – Love the toy-like proportions. Created initially by a group of fresh student designers (i think from Detroit’s own CCS school) this bad-boy looks great; gun-metal, powerful body/greenhouse ratio; a lot of military detail – this is as cool as a Hummer gets. Stick a clean diesel in this and GM would change Hummer’s image in Europe overnight.

Cadillac CTS coupe and V – The V-series is, of course, GM’s answer to BMW’s M-series and Mercedes AMG arm of high-performance cars. It’s production, whereas the coupe is concept. The coupe is definitely the more resolved of the two IMO. It’s ‘edgy’ detailing complements the relatively simple surfacing nicely. Check out the C-pillar; seen in isolation it would look over-the-top, almost a cartoonish point, but somehow it’s absorbed into the calm overall shape of the car. If they developed the rear-end cutlines on this concept it would make a great American alternative to a 3-series coupe or an Infiniti coupe.

The V on the other hand, makes no bones about the fact that it’s a powerful beast. There’s a lot of ‘mesh’ going on up front…personally I think it makes the car look too busy. But if you’re after explicit power referencing then this is your car;

Compare it with the M5 from BMW;

India’s Tata made history with it’s 1 lahk car , the Nano (1 lahk=100,00 rupees or $2,500 / £1,250). Definitely not launched in Detroit, for obvious reasons, this car is clearly a revolution in personal transport. I guess the Indian market is more interested in mobility and affordability than style, but I think the car looks ok, with one major exception..

Wheel size; looks like the wheels were chosen with packaging in mind. Any bigger and they’d cut into useful passenger space. But they’d look a whole lot better;

Original….

Pimped;

But I’m nit-picking; this will open up an enormous domestic market in India and other developing countries. The talk in some of the Western press about the damaging effects of this car on the environment is pure hypocrisy. We’re happy to drive around in our performance cars and slowly talk about emissions targets, while whole countries are growing fast, and wanting simply to get mobile. I think Ratan Tata has revolutionsed cheap transport with this car. And I’m sure they’ll be some aftermarket 20″ rims available soon….