All articles by Sam Livingstone – Page 4
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Design Development: Opel Signum
The Signum, now being launched across Europe under the Opel and Vauxhall brands, is a variant of the Vectra range (or 'palette') already comprising sedan, hatch and the newly announced estate. The wheelbase is 130mm longer than the hatchback and sedan, but its rear overhang is 90mm less and thus ...
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Andy Saunders sells 'Art Cars' collection
British 'car artist' Andy Saunders' 'Art Car' collection was sold by RM Auctions in London, UK on October 29, along with a selection of classic cars and a McLaren F1 that sold for £2.5 million - a new world record.
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Show Review: Salon Prive 2009
In the US, Germany and Japan, and in practically all of the world's largest economies, the streets are dominated by cars from domestic brands. Locals may not notice their patriotic automotive landscape, but visitors interested in car design tend to see the consistent aspects of each region's particular car composition ...
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Second annual ENG Automotive Design Summit held in Rome
Click for larger imagesRoberto Piatti, Stile BertoneAndreas Wlasak, Faurecia (far left)Photos: hmz mediaEuropean Networking Group (ENG) held their second annual Automotive Design Summit May 12-13. To follow on from the success of last years event in Barcelona, the event was held in the stylish Es Hotel in Rome, Italy. The ...
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Driven: Jaguar XF
It is possibly harder to design a Jaguar than any other premium car brand. The essence of the firm's highly regarded design language is over 40 years old with the shadow of the 1961 E-type and 1968 XJ6 - and even the 1955 Mk1/1959 Mk2 - looming large. For decades ...
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First Sight: BMW 3 Series
SpecificationOn the roads in Spring 2005, the 3 Series is conceptually and technically an incremental development of its predecessor. It has revised petrol engines ranging from one 2 litre four cylinder through 2.5 to 3.0 litre sixes and continues downwards with a 1.8 litre four and upwards with a new ...
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ArticleDriven: Honda FRV
The Honda FRV is a misunderstood car. It’s a European market orientated compact MPV that unusually has two rows of three seats, a configuration shared only with the earlier Fiat Multipla design. But unlike the bulbous, short, tall and deep-windowed Italian, the Honda shares almost identical dimensions to the five seat Renault Scenic that is the compact MPV market leader
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Designer Interview: Steve Mattin, Design Director, Volvo Cars
Steve Mattin was appointed Design Director of Volvo Cars in May 2005 after 18 years working at Mercedes-Benz, a company he joined as a junior designer straight after graduating from Coventry University in the UK. Mattin picked up the reigns at Volvo after his predecessor Henrik Otto's departure to Electrolux, ...
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Driven: Lexus IS-F
The Lexus IS-F is a significant new design for one core reason: it introduces a performance sub-brand parallel to that of the M-cars from BMW, AMG from Mercedes-Benz, and the S and RS sub-brands from Audi. This then is Lexus making a logical next step to further encroach on the ...
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Design Essay: Face-Off
The second reason behind the emergence of face-off lies in vehicle development economics: the cost of developing and tooling for a clean-sheet, mass-market design starts at around US$1bn and is growing all the time. Compounding this is the recent trend for mass-market model lifecycles in the west to span five ...
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Design Essay: Face-Off
Just as a facelift is a slight alteration to an individual's appearance, making them appear younger while preserving their facial character, the procedure is also true for car design. Different bumpers, grille details, secondary lights and trim elements are the most obvious changes; the core design identity of the original ...
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Design Review: Honda Ridgeline
But now, even this last bastion of US brand dominance is under threat and the Honda Ridgeline is leading the attack.Debuting at last month's Detroit Auto Show, at 5258mm long, 1930mm wide and 1778mm tall the Ridgeline is very slightly smaller than America's best selling vehicle, the Ford F-150 pick-up ...
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China Automotive Design Conference
The Nissan Teana is a successful large sedan in China. Project Chief Designer Kinichi Saitou took the conference audience through the second-generation Teana design program in detail. Recognizing the value of the original design and its subtle design identity, his team developed this with a slightly more curvaceous form language ...
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China Automotive Design Conference
The China Automotive Design Conference, which took place in Nanjing on Monday July 14, opened with a brief introduction from Ms Wang Zhen Ying, China Society of Automotive Engineers (China SAE) Director of International Affairs, who said: "China is trying to be more creative in design" and that "car design ...
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ArticleDesign Development: Acura ZDX
The Acura ZDX debuted as a prototype at the New York Auto show earlier this year, following a three-year design development process. In early 2006 four designers based at Honda’s design center in Torrance, California, started work on a “really blue-sky project to explore the direction of Acura”, as ZDX exterior designer Michelle Christensen told Car Design News. Based on the MDX platform, the resu
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Design Development: Acura ZDX
As we wrote when the ZDX made its debut in March 2009, “The immediate reaction to the ZDX is that this is Honda’s take on the BMW X6”. In reality the Acura design was near sign-off when the X6 concept appeared at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, but clearly the BMW’s debut must have caused quite a reaction from the ZDX design team - it being so similar, sharing both SUV and coupe genes.
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Design Review: Ford Focus
The new car's exterior theme progresses the fastback profile of the original (and so bucks the norm of upright tailgates in this class) but otherwise erodes all elements of its predecessor's design distinction.