Greg Myers Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 (edited) In it's first iteration it didn't do very well. looked good , but fell short on quite a few areas. Had to add some "hickies" to make it work. Edited March 27, 2015 by Greg Myers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southpier Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 .... the "Jodie Kidd" factor... since i'm quite out of the loop, have to admit i Oggled - oops! - Googled the name. nice styling and well engineered; apparently has all the optional accessories, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurfalien Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 (edited) Take the Cube for example, of which I have a Krom (pronounced chrome) edition and I call it Crom after Conan The Barbians warrior god At any rate I watched a presentation by its designer, some French guy I think. A few points which I really like; Asymtric rear. Rear cargo door opens away from curbside making load/unload convenient. Very square so tons of headroom room/space. Drivers seat height cranks up very high and down very low. Keyless entry and ignition, making grocery shopping easier. Bluetooth everything. Voice nav. IOS integration. Tach is blue after the water, speedo is white after the moon. Dash is curved and called a hot tub design. Touch screen in dash stereo/nav etc... Headliner has ripples to simulate water dropping as do all speaker vents including rear Fosgate sub. Front end looks like a pig wearing sunglasses. Rear bench slides forward and back. Rear seats recline pretty far back for those long road trips so one can sleep. Rotating or still interior lights, looks like a disco bus. My wife and I went car shopping and nothing I saw that was practical tickled me. At the end of a grueling fruitless day, we said screw it and test drove a Cube. As soon as getting in one we started to giggle and laugh. I'm like oh yea, I want a car that makes me giggle and happy. Been 3 years now, no issues great mileage and rare so not many on the road. Now even more so being they are discontinued. Forgot, the CV tranny takes a bit to get used to but I can hit the power band at will just about. Also its short wheel base makes for being able to turn around a frisby (just about). Edited March 27, 2015 by aurfalien Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 (edited) The way i see it, "design" refers to the visual aspect of a product. "Engineering" covers the functionality. Really, Harry? I think that's really interesting, coming from someone with a design degree, and maybe another example of "two cultures divided by a common language". I did an engineering degree, but I've never doubted that "design" was a skill that great engineers should have. Dieter Rams is, I believe, someone that most people taught in design school will have come across, and who is highly regarded by many people who are very successful designers. I collect his work, when I can afford it (more the hair-dryers than the hi-fi...). But without any help from me, my daughter's Design and Technology class (age 15), were introduced to his "10 principles of good design" by their teacher. I'm not going to quote them all, but... "Good design makes a product useful" has always seemed to me to be the essential one. I don't think that design and function can be separated, and if they are, the end result is compromised, and could be better. For them's as are interested, the 10 principles are laid out here: https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/good-design Rams' work may not be to your taste (basically, he created Braun's design style, so if you don't like minimal, functional and stylish design, you may not like what he has produced). But I defy anyone to look at those ten principles and tell me one that they have a good reason for the rest of us to ignore... bestest, M. Edited March 27, 2015 by Matt Bacon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordairgtar Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Aurfalien...Good call on the Cube. A friend of mine has one and he is pleased with his as well. I like the fact that they made it a mirror image when importing to the US and other places driving on the left side of the roads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordairgtar Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 (edited) https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR9FZArSt20-BtBwuAhcl-a8bpqeQkbplG43cXsd6QntfsPv4ZT:www.waycoolinc.com/graphics/z3/01/gumball/oakpark/car/lincoln1.jpg Can a designer of architecture leap over into auto design? Not in Frank Lloyd Wright's case. He had somewhat interesting ideas as to how his Lincoln was to look. Edited March 27, 2015 by lordairgtar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Interesting, Matt. Yeah, I have a Design degree, but I do believe that "design" is a visual descriptor. Of course, we can agree to disagree on just exactly what "good design" means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurfalien Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Thanks lordairgtar. I hope my post illustrates the design going in the Cube as I wasn't meaning to say "hey look at me". Its just that like with most things, unless its pointed out and explained, the points are missed. I suppose one can say a good design speaks for itself but I've never felt this the case. Rather, a good design is one that doesn't take a lot to explain or understand. Its like an epiphany as in "OMG that's soo cool, i get it". Now this is different than art as I feel Ferrari's for example are art, not necessarily good design, but simply a sexy sweet thang! Now the new ones, well I dunno about them as I'm merely speaking of 60's era and before. The new ones seem like tech marvels but I don't get into em as I like sports cars fairly simple. This is a most excellent topic BTW, thanks to the OP for posting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southpier Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 .....with most things, unless its pointed out and explained, the points are missed..... true. presentations are the narrative enabling 'look' to become 'see'. a substantial amount of effort is required to educate the audience. we're pretty much all born with the same knowledge, but exposure to different things creates our filters, which in turn shapes our perceptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurfalien Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Ah, thats interesting. Socrates I think said we are born knowing everything while not realizing it. And then simply go through life remembering it. Or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 (edited) but exposure to different things creates our filters, which in turn shapes our perceptions. It's exposure, cultural and time frame. I used to car pool with a nice Indian guy about 10 years younger than me. I always enjoyed the cultural differences and his take on things. One day we passed a beautiful 1966 Mustang on a trailer behind a pickup. I pointed it out to him and he just didn't get it. He said it just looked like an out of style frumpy car to him. We all know how we feel about the '66 Mustang. Why? Well, he wasn't even born, much less exposed to US culture and car design in the 1960s. I think our excitement over that design, and continued appreciation of it was due to all the hoopla over it back then. I was in 2nd grade and was keenly aware of the new Mustang, and accepted the consensus that it was good. I had a plastic toy fastback. And when my father went car shopping that year, I enthusiastically recommended he buy a Mustang. That's part of the whole essence of an advertising campaign. It covered everyone since they knew that a seven year old could influence the purchase of a car. (It didn't work in my case, my dad bought a '66 Lemans coupe with a 4 speed) My Indian friend, on the other hand, had zero exposure to the Mustang design his entire life until perhaps my pointing one out to him. He had no reference, nor the herd consensus that this was 'good design'. He processed it from his vantage point of another culture and what they deemed 'good design', and what he was exposed to in the USA in the 10 years he had been here. He had no history with this design so it wasn't in his heart. On the other hand, when I showed him pictures of a Hindustan Ambassador, a car derived from old Austin tooling that lives on in India to this day, he got all excited. In a country where few had cars, the Ambassador was THE car that government officials and important people drove. It also was 3/4 the taxi fleet in the country so everyone had ridden in one. He said in his life they would take mass transit and scooter based cabs, so the ride in the Amby was always associated with a special event. So his herd had wired him to smile when he saw one of them. He was told it was a pleasing car, so he believes it to this day. Edited March 28, 2015 by Tom Geiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclescott58 Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 A few years back there was a US Supreme Court Justice who was asked for his definition of pornagraphy vs. nudity in art. He replied that he didn't know how to define it, but knew it when he saw it. That's kind of how I feel good design. And sometimes it's just a little thing that can take a bad design and turn it into a good one. And vice versa. For me the best automotive design ever is Gordon Buehrig's stunning 1936 and '37 Cord 810/812. From the first one I ever saw 45 years ago, to this day, I've been blown away by the Cord 810/812. Every line on that car is right. With one exception. I really dislike the 812 Beverlys with the bulging trunk lid. I understand the need for that trunk lid. But, to me it ruins the perfect lines of an already great design. Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 the most jutting thing i see on Pre-WWII cars is a tilted forward grille frame with the top higher than the body's cowl. if the styling fails there, i can't get to the rest of the car. This came to mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunkypeanutbutter Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Ugh. Those fenders ruin the Graffiti Ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 But you're OK with the "cut down" radiator / grill shell ? VS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunkypeanutbutter Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Both look fine to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 The grill bothers me more than the fenders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Handley Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 The grill bothers me more than the fenders. Same here, either it needed a taller grill, or a channeled body to pull that off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) Mr. Lucas had his own vision of the "good ol' dayz Edited March 31, 2015 by Greg Myers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) Now there's a thing... has anyone ever rodded a 2CV? ;-P Perhaps the less well-known "282CV"... bestest, M. Edited March 31, 2015 by Matt Bacon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunkypeanutbutter Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 There was a thread a while ago with Gasser 2CVs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southpier Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Now there's a thing... has anyone ever rodded a 2CV? ;-P Perhaps the less well-known "282CV"... bestest, M. perhaps http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=96041&hl= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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