Table of contents for No. 187 in AUTO & DESIGN

The Turin Polytechnic 1st level University Master Course in Transportation 3D Modelling, organised by the Architecture Faculty on the proposal of Torino Design and run by Corep, the Research and Permanent Education Consortium, is about to get under way. The aims of the Master Course, Director of which is Design lecturer Claudio Germak, is the training of students to be experts in 3D modelling (using particularly Alias software), providing basic knowledge of the engineering of motor vehicles. “The purpose of this course is to create professionalism in transportation design with the possibility of finding a job opportunity immediately”, says Roberto Piatti of Torino Design, who was the driving force behind the Master Course and intends to take on at least two students as trainee interns. Courses will begin in April…

“We are entering an era of unprecedented diversity in customer values. The very definition of premium is changing according to the individual, as opposed to the traditional hierarchical approach that has driven luxury car design since the beginning of the automotive industry”. Tokuo Fukuichi, recently appointed overall design chief at Toyota Motor Company, has no doubts: a luxury brand like the Lexus must continue to evolve if it is to provide answers to the constantly changing needs of customers. It must therefore include in its range cars like the CT 200h, a compact five-door hatchback with a hybrid heart. “The CT 200h design approach focused on creating a highly condensed form that builds on the function of the vehicle. Extraneous elements were removed to create an incisively simple form that has…

After Fiat’s first interactive experience for the launch of the 500, when it opened a direct channel of communication with consumers to explore possibilities for new colour and trim solutions, its Brazilian wing – Fiat Automoveis, in Betim, in the state of Minas Gerais – has now gone a step further. It has designed an entire minicar concept intended essentially for urban use with the involvement of the public. Officially denominated FCC III (Fiat Concept Car III), it is the third in a series of concepts (preceded by two concepts presented in 2006 and 2008) developed for the Sao Paulo Motor Show. To the Brazilian public, however, who gave the little car a very warm reception, it is known as the Fiat Mio. This was not the only new idea…

Having passed the milestone of one million cars manufactured in 2010, Audi starts 2011 by presenting the seventh generation (including the period when it was known as the 100) of the A6, its flagship in the premium E-segment that has been particularly hard hit by the worldwide recession, but which is generally thought to be showing signs of a recovery. So the new A6 is also a challenge, and an exhaustive road test in Sicily, between Palermo, Sciacca and Agrigento – even on the wet – seems to confirm the quality of a model of which over 7 million cars have been built since 1968. According to Audi, the agile A6, with its sporty, dynamic look, “expresses prestige and personality”. It is shorter, wider and lower than the previous model,…

A name borrowed from the brand’s history, up-to-the-minute mechanicals and Giorgetto Giugiaro styling. This in a word is the winning content of the New Korando, a segment C crossover that marks the return of the Korean company SsangYong following two difficult years that concluded with the agreement with the Indian company Mahindra. Italdesign’s work began in the spring of 2006 and continued for five months. The focus was on styling development and on the production of the style model. “The aim”, says Giugiaro, now with Volkswagen, “was to produce a compact, young and dynamic crossover. So we opted for a product with balanced dimensions and styling and with an attractive rear end to add dynamism. Compared to our first proposal, front, grille and lighting clusters were all modified to boost…

Stop to take a look around you and find the right inspiration. This is the latest pioneering theme that the designers of Mercedes-Benz have chosen to explore for the interior design of cars in a vision of the future which, while seemingly far removed from what we understand today, is perhaps much closer than we think. The 2011 Detroit motor show set the stage for the presentation of a somewhat unusual sculpture named Aesthetics No. 2, whose forms represented a cabin of the future with no steering wheel, controls or screens, conceived following the forms of nature and of the art of nature itself, as the poet F. Von Schlegel said two centuries ago. The sculpture leaves ample room for creativity, while the use of ever lighter materials, which seem…

The history of Bentley is one of great upheavals. It is a story of remarkable technological innovation and thrilling racing exploits, but also one of economic frailty which, on numerous occasions in its 92 years of existence, has seen the marque teetering on the brink of oblivion. Founded in 1919, in spite of its first win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, the company already needed salvation in 1925. Just a few years later, in 1931, bankruptcy was unavoidable and the company was sold to Rolls-Royce, which would control its destinies for the next 67 years. This first era – from 1919 to 1931 – is now known as the “Cricklewood era”, after the part of London where the first factory was established. The company was founded…

“It was a confidence booster for everyone – we were going back to the real identity of the brand.” This is how Bentley interior design director Robin Page recalls the day in 1998 when the Volkswagen Group succeeded in acquiring the Crewe based brand. “It was the end”, he says, “of many compromises.” In 1999, the fourth era in Bentley’s history began in earnest. It was the period which continues to this day and has spawned a succession of models drawing deeply from the Dna of the brand, and which have given new lustre to a name that is, once again, worthy of its glorious heritage. This renaissance is reflected in the significant increase in workforce (from 1500 to 4000), in vehicles produced (with sales exceeding 10,000 units in 2007,…

This is the flagship of the new Bentley, the symbol of an unequivocally elite ideal: a new expression of automotive luxury, which also looks to the traditions and glorious racing history of the brand. These were the goals that Bentley set itself when Project 831 – which was to spawn the Mulsanne - was launched five years ago. At the 2009 Frankfurt motor show, Bentley Motors chairman Franz-Josef Paefgen presented the car as “a modern luxury flagship that expresses the essence of its name, which is elegant but sporty, offers superlative performance and cocoons its occupant in a sumptuous cabin”. It was no easy task that stood before Bentley design director Dirk van Braeckel and chief team members Raul Pires and Robin Page, who were responsible for the exterior and…

The Continental GT symbolised the renaissance of Bentley after its acquisition by the Volkswagen group and separation from Rolls-Royce. Expectations have been high for the second generation, which, seven years after the launch of its predecessor, now carries the hopes of the Crewe based marque. While the Mulsanne is the flagship, the GT represents the core of the range in terms of sales. Presented last year at Paris, the new car is already on sale all over the world. “In the new GT”, says project leader Ulrich Eichhorn, “we have encapsulated 90 years of excellence. This car is the essence of everything Bentley stands for: breathtaking performance, magnificent design and incomparable levels of quality, comfort and luxury.” Outgoing chairman of Bentley Motors, Franz-Josef Paefgen, is even less restrained: “A true…

‘Bentleys of the Future’ was the topic of the competition for 18 students of the Master’s course in Vehicle Design at the Royal College of Art in London. The project, which concluded in summer 2010 and is known as the RCA Project, called for the definition of a 2 seat Bentley coupé for the year 2050, which combines the traditional values of the Crewe based marque with extreme aerodynamics. Headed by exterior design director Raul Pires with the support of Dominic Najafi, the project resulted in the selection of four finalists, who then tested and honed their proposals in collaboration with EXA, using its CFG programme (Computer Fluid Generated - a program not only extensively used by Bentley, but also by Formula 1 teams). “Striking a compromise between design and…

Jun-Ho Choi is the new head of styling of I.DE.A. Institute. A forty-year-old Korean, Choi has had lengthy working experience in Italy. After graduating in transportation design at the IED of Turin, he worked at Inovo Design and was a consultant with the Ferrari style centre. Between 2004 and 2007 he was consultant with the Hyundai design centre in Germany. Jun-Ho Choi è il nuovo direttore dello stile di I.DE.A. Institute. Coreano, quarant’anni, ha una lunga esperienza lavorativa in Italia. Dopo essersi diplomato in transportation design allo IED di Torino ha infatti lavorato ad Inovo Design, è stato consulente del centro stile Ferrari e, tra il 2004 e il 2007, del design center Hyundai in Germania.…

A target weight of under 1000 kilos. This was the ambitious goal which, together with a stringent brief, would lead in just five months to the creation of the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, one of the most astonishing concepts at the last Mondial in Paris. Compact and angular almost to the point of razor-sharpness, the car stirred a buzz of interest and was one of the talking points of the show, with its typically uncompromising style, in keeping with Lamborghini traditions. Sesto Elemento (a reference to the ‘sixth element’ in the periodic table – carbon) is more than just a styling exercise. On this project, the engineers and designers at Sant’Agata Bolognese worked closer together than ever before. “This car is a technological demonstrator” explains Research and Development director Maurizio Reggiani. “We wanted to start…

The Infiniti brand was presented to the world twenty-two years ago, at the Detroit Motor Show in January 1989. This was a new luxury brand created by Nissan primarily for the US where, on November 8 that same year, the Q45 first went on sale. Seen with today’s eyes, that luxury saloon, which unashamedly mimicked the styling cues of the same German flagships it was aiming to compete with, while unmistakably a child of its times, retains a sense of elegance and proportional harmony that speaks volumes of the meticulous attention to detail and aerodynamics that went into its design. While far removed from the brand’s current styling language, which is the product of two decades of evolution, the Q45 already bore the principles of Infiniti design: the badge – an oval…

Here it is finally on the road after a year of debuts: the new Focus made its bow on the world stage in January 2010 at the Detroit Show where the three-box saloon was unveiled. This was followed in March in Geneva by the five-door hatchback and station wagon and then, in Paris in October, by the ST sports variation. So after a year of world previews, the Focus hatchback finally goes on sale in March with the station wagon following close on its heels in summer. A segment C car that is strategic for the European market, the Focus was born in 1998 as a replacement for the historic Escort, and as a mouthpiece for New Edge Design, at the time a practically new chapter in Ford styling. The…

Trying to imagine what a city will look like in 2100 with its urban landscape, dynamics and transport systems is a creatively stimulating endeavour. If the city in question is the one you live in, the experience also takes on an emotional connotation that leads you to theorise an inevitable improvement in today’s conditions. This is what happened to the students of the Research Master in Advanced Design for Transportation at the Ied institute of Turin, who for their thesis had to develop the subject “Turin 2100: a time projection into the city of tomorrow”. Coordinated by Paolo Trevisan, chief R&D designer at Pininfarina Extra, the aim of the course is to prepare designers to be able to theorise possible futurist scenarios and design new mobility solutions by analysing and…

The second era in the long history of Bentley is the Derby period, from 1931 to 1946 – a period with very tumultuous beginnings: concerned by the potential of this great rival, Rolls-Royce stepped in when it seemed certain that Bentley, riddled with debt that not even Woolf Barnato himself could dig the company out of, was about to be bought out – and revitalised – by Napier, which had left the automotive world and was now purely an aviation concern. Rolls-Royce immediately set to work to develop a smaller chassis for a new family of sports Bentleys, but in the meanwhile, the “old” Bentley lived on. “The Cricklewood factory closed in 1931”, recalls Richard Charlesworth, “but Rolls-Royce had a small number of cars, between six and eight, built with…

2002 was the most extra-ordinary year in the entire history of Bentley Motors. This was not only the year in which the Continental GT was launched – the car embodying the brand’s hopes for its future – but also a year of extremes. In 2002, the Crewe-based carmaker touched the two opposite poles of the automotive world. On the one hand, it had just built the definitive luxury flagship - Queen Elizabeth’s state limousine. On the other, it had created a racing machine which, after two years’ experience with an initial model raced in 2001 and 2002, was to bring home first and second place in the 2003 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finally adding to the marque’s previous five wins from over 70 years earlier (one…

The Continental Supersports and Convertible, both of which pet projects of Ulrich Eichhorn, represent Bentley’s bid to tackle the supercar segment head on, and the codename of the Supersports – “project Victoria” – is particularly apt. Derived respectively from the Continental GT and GTC, the two models are a homage to the past racing glories of the marque. Launched in 2009 (Supersports) and 2010 (Convertible), they both boast a six litre twin turbo W12 engine with power upped to 630 bhp (0-100 Km/h in 3.9 seconds, top speed 329 Km/h). “The Supersports is the most extreme of our products” explains exterior design director Raul Pires, who defined the style with Gareth Thomas. “It is Bentley’s alternative to Aston Martin and Ferrari”. It is, however, incredibly easy to drive, and is…

The perfect marriage between Bentley design and the obsessive skill of the marque’s craftsmen in working with hide, wood and metal has so much to offer, even beyond the confines of cars that fuse sports performance with luxury. So it was almost inevitable that this expression of impeccable taste and perfection would extend beyond the automotive world and into luxury goods, in which the primary requisites – explains Brett Boydell, the designer in charge of this collateral activity, assisted by Jonathan Punter and Daniele Ceccomori – are to “reflect Bentley quality and maintain a connection with the automobile world”. There was a condition however: the design had to be done at Crewe. The result of this is the Bentley Collection, a range of luxury items including silk ties and scarves…

This 81st edition presents the customary spate of novelties: concept cars from nearly all the manufacturers, proposals from the coachbuilders, production car debuts of some importance. The Fiat group is renewing its range with a little help from across the Atlantic along with two new designs from Italy: the new Ypsilon and a small Alfa Romeo sports car concept. The Volkswagen group is presenting an impressive number of novelties including two concept cars from Italdesign Giugiaro for the VW brand dedicated to the urban mobility of tomorrow, while Lamborghini will finally be unveiling the Aventador, the supercar successor to the Murciélago. Pininfarina is signing a double debut: the Ferrari FF and the born-again De Tomaso, the brand for which it has designed the SLC (Sport Luxury Car). Edizione ancora una…

Lilli Bertone has received the prestigious Grand Prix du Design 2011, an award assigned during the Festival Automobile International, the 26th edition of which took place in Paris in February. As the motivation says, a prize awarded “to a great personality who, with her aides, played an active part in 2010 in the protection and international advancement of automotive design.” Lilli Bertone ha ricevuto il prestigioso Grand Prix du Design 2011, riconoscimento assegnato nell’ambito del Festival Automobile International, la cui 26esima edizione si è svolta a Parigi nel febbraio scorso. Un premio, recita la motivazione, «ad una grande personalità che ha avuto nel 2010 un ruolo attivo per la tutela e la diffusione internazionale del design automobilistico».…

One of the concepts created by Peugeot this last Autumn preferred the sincerity of the circuit over the hype of the motor show: the EX1, which fuses aerodynamics and electricity to deliver record-breaking acceleration. At the Mondial de l’Automobile 2010 in Paris, Peugeot exhibited two worthy concept cars, the SR1 and HR1 which, however, have already been presented in Auto & Design. Outside the motor show, however, in its show room on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Peugeot unveiled a third prototype: the EX1, a vehicle destined to break acceleration records. The first testing took place last October at the Monthlhéry circuit near Paris. The car then set off for Chengdu in China where, last December, it smashed its own acceleration records. Driven by Han-Han (a local driver, writer and popular blogger, ed.),…

Setting up an outpost in a place that is not just distant geographically but is also culturally far removed from the realities which we call daily life in the West, from our familiar lifestyle and from all of the things that we believe we cannot do without except in extraordinary circumstances. This was the goal that Citroën set for itself and achieved in Spring 2008 by establishing a Peugeot and Citroën design studio in Shanghai. The director of the studio, Oleg Son, explains: “Our sources of inspiration are international, but as the world is not homogeneous, the only way to understand each different country and its cultures is from within”. This is even more true in the case of the vast cultural gulf between the East and West. The design…

Toyota completes its MPV range with the new Verso-S, a segment B vehicle that continues along the road set out by the Yaris Verso. From the latter – a vehicle produced between 1997 and 2007 and today an almost unfindable cult car – the new Verso-S has inherited the criteria of space and versatility, and focuses on safety, comfort and compatibility with the environment and technological content. Produced in Japan and the outcome of a project that brought in all Toyota style/development centres, the Verso-S is not even 4 metres long (3990 mm) and has abandoned the almost playful styling of its parent in favour of a more elegant, slim-line (Cx 0.297) solution with short overhangs and a concave-convex shape configuration. The front is dominated by the sweeping V-shaped grille…

At times we have to go and see a good science fiction film before we can take in the full reach of human ingenuity, and a step further, the ability of today’s technology to turn this ingenuity into material form and make it real to the public watching. The film we are talking about is TRON: Legacy produced by Walt Disney, a sequel to the first Tron of 1982 whose sets were the work of that futurist designer par excellence Syd Mead, creator among others of Blade Runner, Aliens and the first StarTrek. Now, almost thirty years later, the task, and the honour, of reviving Mead’s work for Tron has fallen to designer Daniel Simon, for whom Mead has been a great inspiration ever since he was a boy. Of…

‘Understated’ is a wonderful English word. The idea of not making too much of a show of oneself is a little difficult to apply to a car costing over 200 thousand Euros, but this is precisely what Bentley’s designers aim to do. It is a keystone in their philosophy. “Every Bentley expresses luxury, as its quality is excellent and this is evident to anyone who sees the car” explains Dirk van Braeckel, design director for the Crewe based marque. “In my experience of driving our cars on British roads, I have always seen only positive reactions and admiration. In most people’s eyes. A Bentley is a beautiful object – it is sporty and expresses success, but it is not ostentatious, and this has been the case throughout the entire history…

The third of the four eras in Bentley’s history – the Crewe period – was by far the longest, lasting 53 years in all from 1946 to 1999. It has, however, not always been the most fulfilling in terms of brand development, as Bentley gradually became more and more identified with its parent Rolls-Royce. But immediately after the Second World War, with the arrival of John Blatchley from the coach-building house Gurney Nutting and the brand transferring together with Rolls-Royce to the new Crewe plant, where it finally had its own design studio, Bentley created the first car in its history to be coachbuilt in the factory – the Mark 6. Paradoxically, in spite of the growing assimilation by the Spirit of Ecstasy, the first seeds of renaissance were sown…

The Azure and Brooklands were the two “big” Bentleys that bridged the gap between two eras: between the Arnage – a legacy from the Rolls-Royce period – and the new Mulsanne. Both adopted the new language with which Bentley design director Dirk van Braeckel brought back the themes of luxury and sportiness encapsulated in the Dna of the brand. The models, however, had their limitations, imposed by the use of the Arnage platform. The Azure cabriolet presented in 2006 explored a greater design simplicity, with almost a touch of minimalism, to mask the gargantuan proportions of the Arnage, with which (with the exception of the bumpers) it shared almost the entire front module up to the door line. But this was already a step forward: the windscreen had changed, and…

“Our interiors are complex by nature, due to the way we use leather and wood. We know how to handle these materials better than anyone else, so we actually design our cars around them, working side by side with engineers and craftsmen, striving to recreate the final result in leather in our clay models.” Coming from Bentley design chief Dirk van Braeckel, these words are an unreserved eulogy to interior design director Robin Page, and to the colour and trim team – an aspect that takes on a whole new dimension of master craftsmanship at Crewe - namely Melinda-June Jenkins, who, after six years with Bentley handed over the reins of the division to Peter Cullum-Kenyon, and their closest colleagues Cathy Bass, Stefanie Borimann and Chris Cooke. Curiously, in a…