All articles by Guy Bird – Page 9
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Analysis: When brands go off-piste (and sometimes crash)
From a design perspective, the process can offer a usefully different stimulus for the car designer involved too as Bentley's Daniele Ceccomori points out: "You don't have the same constraints of safety and homologation that goes into a car so you can experiment more.
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Analysis: When brands go off-piste (and sometimes crash)
Of late, there seems to be have been a major - and seemingly contagious - outbreak of car brands dabbling in non-car product design and collaborations. It's worth being wary of these matches, as there have been some mixed results.
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Design Development: Ford Focus
Meanwhile, for the four-door variant there were other concerns. "In Asia (and the US) it's very important that the four-door looks like a three-box" he explains, "so the upper quarter of the rear door is vital in how far you drop the line. There were a lot of taping sessions!"
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Design Development: Ford Focus
With more than ten million sales in the bank since 1998, the Ford Focus has become an icon for mainstream cars that are great to look at and fantastic to drive. As the third-generation model gears up for sale in early 2011, Car Design News exclusively traces its design development ...
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Driven: Honda FCX Clarity
It may be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell but the Honda FCX Clarity is no work-in-progress; its technology awkwardly shoehorned into an existing model. Nor is it a brittle concept without suspension banned from exceeding 30mph. It's a safety-tested four-seat executive sedan designed from scratch to accommodate hi-tech underpinnings.
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Ssangyong relaunches brand with Giugiaro-designed Korando
Korean brand Ssangyong is back from the dead. After looking odds-on favorite to become another automotive casualty of the global recession after Chinese owner SAIC put it into receivership in early 2009, the 4x4 specialist has found a new owner in 2010 - signing a memorandum of understanding with Indian ...
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Interview: Nobuki Ebisawa, managing director of R&D and general manager, styling design development division, Honda
What about the EV-N? The late-1960s Honda N360 has clearly been referenced in its design. Are you concerned about accusations of ‘going retro'?
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Interview: Nobuki Ebisawa, managing director of R&D and general manager, styling design development division, Honda
Historically, access to Honda designers has been tricky to gain. So it was a rare pleasure to catch up with design boss Nobuki Ebisawa at Honda's Automobile R&D center in Wako on the outskirts of Tokyo. Apparently, the occasion marked only the second time the normally secret location had opened ...
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Design Development: Mercedes-Benz B-Class
A strong part of the brief for the new platform called MFA (Mercedes Front-wheel drive Architecture) was to appeal more strongly to a youthful clientele. It will provide the base for around five new small cars. The B-Class - on sale March 2012 - starts the onslaught followed by a ...
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Design Development: Mercedes-Benz B-Class
“You have to have some lines on the side view to make the proportion a little bit lower,” Bauer continues. “If you have one or two long lines on the side it’s easier to add emotion for the eyes, it’s necessary. For the SLS you don’t need such lines. You could build a car like the B-Class without lines, but maybe it would be a little bit simple.”
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Smart Forspeed concept signals new design direction
Smart will unveil a new concept at the forthcoming Geneva motor show that signals a new design direction, hints at future product and confirms parent company Daimler's renewed commitment to the brand.
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Design Development: Suzuki Q concept
On the surface, the Suzuki Q is a perfect example of why many in the industry love the Tokyo motor show. Its steady stream of quirky and colorful concepts over the years has provided a tantalising glimpse of what the future could look like through creative Japanese eyes - with ...
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Design Review: Toyota FT-CH concept
The interior of the FT-CH was initially more difficult to evaluate as only one official photo of the cabin was available and the Detroit show car's doors were locked while the concept itself was perched up on a hard-to-access pedestal, limiting views inside. Interior designer Urwin did concede that this ...
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Design Review: Toyota FT-CH concept
Having succeeded in establishing the Prius as the undoubted ‘poster boy' of the righteous eco driver movement, Toyota is now embarking on reinforcing its green credentials by expanding its petrol/electric hybrid range to cater to other types of driver. Crucially, many of these new vehicles are set to define a ...
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Design Development: Aston Martin Rapide
The biggest exterior difference on the production Rapide compared to the concept is the bold new crease that extends from the signature side air intake behind the front wheelarch across the front door and just into the rear door panel (this is just below the shoulder line that extends from ...
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Design Development: Aston Martin Rapide
The design development of the forthcoming four-door, four-seater Aston Martin Rapide was heavily affected and intertwined with the recent transition of the brand itself: from Ford Group ‘jewel in the crown' to independent player, and from super car niche manufacturer to its now GT-expanded range and scope. Car Design News ...
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Design Development: Honda Civic
Indeed, one of the key sketches that influenced the final production version - from Daisuke Toriyama's ‘Proposal A' - features a distinctly protruding spoiler clad in a red plastic reflector connecting the two rear lights while still fulfilling an aerodynamic purpose. The spoiler in the production version is lower to ...
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Design Development: Honda Civic
Topping the radically futuristic previous-generation European Honda Civic hatchback was always going to be a tough ask. Car Design News talks exclusively to the man with that task, overall exterior design leader for the project, Daisuke Sawai.
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Design Development: Changan Chana E301 concept
Given the complexity of the project in terms of movable functions and parts, close engineering support was necessary throughout, including the engineers at Turin-based Vercarmodel that built the prototype. The E301's project leader was Fabio Miniati. Cosimo Amadei was the exterior designer and their Chinese colleagues Zheng Haihao (design) and ...
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Design Development: Changan Chana E301 concept
If you're looking for evidence of increasing confidence and content in concept cars from Chinese carmakers, you'll find it in the Chana E301. One of the surprise hits of the 2009 Shanghai auto show, the boldly asymmetric concept was commissioned by Changan Automobile, a manufacturer that recently gained Chinese Central ...