Table of contents for No. 188 in AUTO & DESIGN

Torino Design is five years old. This service company founded by Roberto Piatti focuses on car design in accordance with a new operating formula: create a lean, highly professional organisation able to provide consultancy of high quality working in a network with other service suppliers for 3D modelling and prototype construction. “Design in Turin today is a completely different animal to what it was just five years ago, just as the world motor car scene is completely different”, comments Piatti, “but the philosophy of the beginnings, that desire to go for quality over quantity, has remained unchanged and it is even more valid today at a time when waste of any kind can no longer be tolerated”. After five years of activity, Torino Design can boast a total of more…

The first edition of the Qatar Motor Show held in Doha in January saw the participation among exhibitors of a number of members of the Anfia Coachbuilders’ Group that celebrates its hundredth birthday this year (The Group was set up in 1911 within the then Turin Industrial League before becoming part of Anfia). Although no new concept cars were on display, their large stand was one of the most visited in the show, “in an atmosphere that brought to mind the Turin Motor Shows of the 50s and 60s”, said Leonardo Fioravanti, President of the Coachbuilders Group. Visitor figures, close to 90,000 in four days out of a population of a million 400 thousand inhabitants, gives some idea of the huge passion for cars in Qatar (the country is incidentally…

With five doors for the first time, the new Lancia Ypsilon presents certain formal traits that recall the Delta. “It was born at a time when we were aiming to align range models with certain aesthetic canons”, explained Lorenzo Ramaciotti, as he pointed out the main similarities: the form of the grille (now overhauled on the Delta too, for greater consistency with the new Ypsilon), the triangular rear pillar with flying bridge roof, the bubble type rear window ending sharply above the number-plate recess (see the photo on the next page). However, the little Lancia presents numerous new styling cues: “the design is simple but sophisticated, conceived to stand out from the Fiat group’s other compact models and therefore avoiding any marked sportiness or pure functionality. The scoop in the…

Aroadster drives into a city unfamiliar to its two occupants. A ray of blue light flashes across the bonnet and reaches the dash, where a display shows the driver and passenger the places to visit and activities available in the city in relation to their own interests, which the system knows very well. At a junction, the light on the car turns red: there is another car coming that the driver has not seen yet – if he does not react, the seat belts are tensioned and the brake system prepares to step in and avoid the potential collision. This is not science fiction, but a view of the very near future revealed by BMW at Geneva with its Vision ConnectedDrive concept. “The role of this prototype is to demonstrate a…

The comments on the Geneva Show proposals covered in this edition of Auto & Design have been substantially positive and to some extent analysts have put aside their recent gloom when the sky was overcast and weather prospects bleak, any exit from the tunnel hidden by black clouds. And the motor car, as an industrial object, was proceeding with its lights out. These same analysts are now telling us that there are signs of the economic depression blowing over; while there is as yet no reason for outright celebration, we can at least be cautiously optimistic. But clearly numerous problems still have to be solved before the situation sorts itself out, as Robert Cumberford notes in his “Opinion”. The problem of fuel consumption for example at a time when demand…

An event teeming with novelties and attractions in the spirit of and in respect for tradition. That is what is on the bill for the Villa D’Este Concours d’Elegance, being held this year from 20 to 22 May instead of April as in the past. Apart from the date change the event features three other novelties: the introduction of a second day of being open to the public, Saturday, the first Concours reserved for motorbikes and the auction of cars of great historic prestige organised by RM Auctions. “The great tradition of the Villa D’Este Concours can only prosper if it keeps developing”, says Jean Marc Droulers, Villa D’Este President and great animator of the event. On the part of BMW Group Classic which happily sponsors the Concours after being…

With the arrival of Spring — soft and agreeable in Geneva this year—people were encouraged by signs that the economic crisis is easing, that car sales are picking up, and that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. If only that were true, we could all be deliriously happy, not just slightly optimistic. Reality is often uncomfortable, and the present automobile industry reality is that there are more problems than ready solutions. The Sword of Damocles hanging over the entire business is the price of a barrel of petroleum in the next few years. With China, India and Russia all embracing the private automobile at the same time, there is a huge demand for fuel to push prices upward, and turmoil in many of the…

The word first started to spread a few weeks before the Geneva motor show: Alfa Romeo was going to present a new concept car, but no images of it would be released until its unveiling on the stand. “Keeping it a secret up until then wasn’t a problem simply because the car still didn’t even exist” says Alfa Romeo design chief, Marco Tencone, recalling the intense three months of work for himself and his designers that led to the creation of the 4C. The car was actually only finished the evening before the show, and was transported from Turin overnight just a few hours before the Palexpo opened its doors to the press. Working the hardest during this hectic three month project were Alfa exterior design director Ernest Salvi del…

Architecture, architecture, architecture. This word is the key to understanding the new Ferrari FF, the first car with four (real) seats and four wheel drive from the Cavallino stable. The designers worked intensely – almost obsessively – to attain a lightness and purity that seemed to be prohibited by the very nature of the car itself, while complying with the brief, as Fabrizio Valentini explains, to “make a car that is no longer than the Scaglietti, but with a longer wheelbase to create the space necessary for four wheel drive and the rear seats, and with a completely new, lower chassis”. Mission accomplished: the FF is 4.90 metres long but has a wheelbase 40 mm longer than its predecessor, although a great deal of work was done to “visually reduce it,…

Ten years ago, the brilliant 1959 ultra-compact Mini urban car concept, created by a genius, the late Sir Alec Issigonis, was given a new lease of life by BMW. Wider, longer and more powerful, its iconic retro design enabled it to take up a strong position in the small car segment. And its fashionable premium values triggered new trends in that segment. Now BMW wants to refresh the concept for the next generation of Minis, with a new design approach in the interests of more compact dimensions while keeping the original idea and retro features intact. “A clear vision for Mini is essential,” Anders Warming, who took over Mini design from Gert Volker Hildebrand, said. ”Our brief was to answer the question of how to keep the sense of space and…

You’d be wrong to think that the new Audi A6 is just an updated and facelifted version of the previous model. In reality, it is the product of what Wolfgang Egger calls “a new strategy that we will also be following in future”. After the intense work of Walter de’ Silva – now the design chief for the entire Volkswagen group – the brand has completely changed direction to create a premium Audi family with a precise identity. “We want to differentiate the formal language applied to the different models” explains Egger. But rather than through contradiction, this is to be achieved through a more meticulously studied design – now that the brand has reached a greater degree of maturity – of the individual elements most characterising each model. Egger, director of…

Bart Lenaerts BELGIAN CAR DESIGNERS Waft Even when they were just children, they’d spend most of their time drawing cars. These are the opening words with which journalist Bart Lenaerts presents his book, a fascinating anthology of the personal recollections of the professional and, most interestingly, life experiences of ten very different designers who all share the same nationality (all are from Belgium) and, of course, passion for design. Each of the designers reveals the most personal and intimate side of themselves, offering the reader a privileged view of their lives, from distant memories of a childhood in which they only had eyes for cars to the journey that shaped them into the talented men they are today. But, you may certainly ask, why are they all from Belgium? The…

This is the second model in the DS series: after the DS3 of 2009 and ahead of the DS5 that we may be seeing at year-end, the Citroën DS4 adds lustre to a line which the French manufacturer has always employed to explore new horizons. Traditional cars on the one hand – the C series to be specific – and on the other cars whose purpose is to set new standards in styling, design, emotions and refinement. In the present case we are talking about a raised four door with coupé aspirations that combines sportiness, dynamism and compactness with versatility and elegance. “All cars in the DS line”, explains Thierry Metroz, head of Citroën design, “aspire to a different profile in terms of proportions and mass compared to the classic saloons.…

Fabio Filippini is Pininfarina’s new head of design. On 1 April he took over the post left vacant at the end of 2010 by Lowie Vermeersch who has set up on his own. Born in Vercelli 47 years ago, Filippini graduated in Architecture and Industrial Design at Milan Polytechnic and has worked extensively abroad, in Japan (Design Club International), Spain (VW group) and France where he created and directed the Renault Design Paris satellite design centre; after following the Mégane range project, in 2008 he was appointed Vice President Interior Design for all of the French group brands – Renault, Dacia and RSM. At Pininfarina he will anwer directly to company CEO Silvio Angori. Fabio Filippini è il nuovo direttore del design Pininfarina. Il 1° aprile scorso ha assunto il…

Geneva showed a whole raft of novelties from the Fiat group in the form of two new concept cars (the Alfa Romeo 4C and the 500 Coupé Zagato, whose design story we cover in the following pages) and a key model for the Lancia brand, the new Ypsilon. Alongside the Ypsilon we saw the début of a completely refurbished range, the outcome of synergies with Chrysler. Lancia models can therefore now be split into two groups: cars of the Italian school such as the Ypsilon itself, the Musa and the Delta, the latter with redesigned grille, and the American Thema, namely the new Chrysler 300, the Grand Voyager MPV (a name which betrays its origin) and a hypothesis for the Flavia saloon and cabrio on Chrysler 200 base. In addition,…

After the futuristic Pandion presented in 2010, Bertone reveals another facet of its new face with the very realistic and almost conservative B99. We take a closer look. Before we begin, it is only fair that we give due credit to Jaguar’s designers and to Ian Callum in particular who, since his appointment as head of the Whitley studio in 1999, has done a truly outstanding job. The style of the latest generation XJ, launched at Frankfurt in 2009, marked a significant break from its predecessor. Steered by Ian Callum, the design project was headed by Gilles Taylor, a designer who proved his mettle at Citroën in the 1990s and who has just been recruited by Rolls-Royce as director of exterior design. The new XJ abandons any idea whatsoever of nostalgia…

Huayra: it couldn’t have been a more exotic name. Among the people of the Andes, Huayra-Tata was the god of the winds, commanding everything from a breeze to a hurricane. He lives high in mountains and descends into the valleys only to demonstrate his power to his wife, the mother earth goddess Pachamama: he then lifts the waters of lake Titicaca and transforms them into rain, which fall onto the fertile Pachamama. Horacio Pagani – the Modena-based carmaker known for creating the Zonda – explains why he chose the name Huayra for the supercar presented at Geneva: “I chose Huayra because this car is inspired by the eternity of the element air - it is delicate and ethereal but also muscular and powerful”. But this million Euro marvel conceived – as…

After the SLS-AMG supercar and the large CLS four-door coupé, Mercedes-Benz’ new design language – under the direction of Gorden Wagener for the past three years – now gains two new chapters that also celebrate the Stuttgart-based marque’s 125 years of existence. On the one hand is the new iteration of the three-pointed star’s best selling model, the C-Class: the saloon and station wagon versions of which, presented during the past few months, were joined at Geneva by the Coupé. On the other is the sporty SLK coupé-cabriolet – now in its third generation – which, its designers say, is “destined to take open air driving pleasure to new levels”. These two models are more than just a double challenge to rivals, they are also manifestos of the new design direction:…

Three generations and all different. From the formal aesthetic viewpoint, in fact, the new Focus presents few similarities with its predecessors, even though it continues to play a fundamental role in the Ford range. This is why, as Exterior design chief of Ford Europe Stefan Lamm says, “at the beginning of the project the management asked us to develop a really unique car, as unique as the first Focus was in its time”. “Of course,” Lamm goes on, “the two cars have almost nothing in common in terms of styling although they both have an excellent package. Our aim was a design with a strong, original character, bearing in mind that it had to be attractive in markets with differing tastes”. So in the pre-project stage the regional marketing groups…

Can the choice of one colour rather than another really determine the success of a motor car? We put the question to Ruth Pauli, head of the colour and trim department for all vehicles produced by Ford in Europe and her answer was a resounding ‘yes’. “We began from the heritage of the previous Focus with its athletic dynamics, and tried to interpret this through texture and colours, laying emphasis on the new theme of kinetic design and the sculpture of surfaces, with a major contribution from graphics”. The basic task of colour & trim is to draw on the language of interior and external design to make forms as visible as possible, because every car is different, every car has its own personality. “The Focus is our main global…