Table of contents for No. 204 in AUTO & DESIGN

Practicality and style are the two cornerstones of the new generation S-Max, which Ford presented at the last Frankfurt show in concept guise to offer a glimpse of the production model slated for 2015. In 2005, Ford’s first concept for an SAV – or Sport Activity Vehicle, as the carmaker labelled its reinterpretation of the people carrier – received a remarkably warm response from the general public, convincing Martin Smith Ford and his team to carry the project for the S-Max forward. In doing so, they effectively created a new segment, and Ford has now decided to take the experience gained from that exercise and bring it up to date with state of the art technology and innovative new styling. “The new car”, explains Ford Europe design chief Martin Smith,…

Infiniti design has come a long way in a quarter of a century since that Detroit Show of 1989 when Nissan’s luxury brand debuted with its stylistically traditional Q45 saloon. Since then, the pursuit of an image through attractively personal aesthetics has never ceased and has produced its most interesting results in recent years with a series of concept cars that have blossomed into a new formal language for the brand’s production cars. This is particularly the case with the Q50, a saloon of sporting connotations and balanced proportions and a design which Alfonso Albaisa, Executive Director of Infiniti Design, defines as “instinctive, modern and powerful, and much closer to natural forms than any other car in this segment”. Love for Nature is one of the dominating features of Japanese…

In the motorcycle world, it seems that tradition now rhymes with revolution. Brands with deeply rooted styling and engineering credos are now offering products which, while still citing their past in certain details, are unreservedly innovative. This is exactly what makes the bike so special – a machine that has always been intrinsically emotive, and which has often been known to go beyond the realm of reality and embody a dream in its purest form. And while there is no magic formula for this, aesthetics to match the performance are undoubtedly an advantage, as a bike’s looks play a predominant role in the first impression it makes. Italy leads the field in this regard with the Piaggio Group, Ducati and MV Agusta which – as you can see in the…

A world record for lightness and beauty rewarded with a recognition award at Eicma. This is the calling card Ducati offers with its new 1199 Superleggera and Monster 1200. Two typical examples of Italian motorbike quality where style, technical content and performance form a single item targeting the top of its category. You might call it a peremptory response to the problems encountered in recent MotoGP seasons. The firm intention of the top management (and of Audi) is to get back on top double quick, re-affirming that union between sport and road that is not only form and performance but is palpable at all levels. One of the spokesmen of this formula is design chief Andrea Ferraresi: “I’m an engineer”, he says, “and I joined Ducati in 2000 as Project…

A new member joins the family. After the innovative A Class and its four door coupé variant, the CLA, Mercedes presents the third model in the series based on its new MFA platform, which spearheads the brand’s determined assault of the front wheel drive world. The GLA, presented this Autumn at Frankfurt, interprets the compact SUV theme according to the current Mercedes-Benz design language. “It neither changes nor evolves an existing theme”, says Gorden Wagener, “it is a new member of the front wheel drive family in its own right, even though in this case it has all-wheel drive. It is a formidable car, which is very close to the concept we had already presented. It also introduces our philosophy for the SUV of the future, which will be very…

It goes without saying that, when it comes out next September, the new four-seater Smart will be called ForFour, even though the brand’s previous foray into this segment with a model carrying the same name could hardly be called a hit. But that car, says Kai Sieber, “was not a Smart concept”. “It was in fact a B segment car with Smart style but without Smart substance. This time will be different: we took the ForTwo, cut it in half and extended it, leaving the rear wheel drive and rear engine. The Fourjoy concept presented at the Frankfort show is a teaser of what the new car will be like.” As director of design for all Daimler brands other than Mercedes-Benz passenger cars, Siebler is responsible for the Smart brand…

Piaggio has grown from a single brand to a complex industrial giant, to become the European leader in its sector and a major global player. Today, the Piaggio Group offers a comprehensive range of scooters, mopeds, motorcycles and light transport vehicles commercialised through seven different brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Gilera, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi and Scarabeo. Each of these names is an important part of Italy’s two-wheeled culture, and the Group is thoroughly committed to taking care of this heritage.We spoke with Senior Vice President Marco Lambri, who heads the Piaggio & C SpA Product Development and Strategies Design Centre. “The motorcycle world”, he explains, “is very demanding: on the one hand, new product development takes place in a shorter time frame than cars, while on the other, these are very…

“All of us have a corner in our homes where we can just rest and unwind”. For Walter de Silva this relaxation spot is called Luft and it’s the new seat he has designed for Poltrona Frau along with the design team from the Audi Concept Design Studio of Munich. “An armchair is “non-constrictive” because it is designed to let you take up a variety of positions in complete freedom”. So the seat is roomy, close to a seat and a half, and can be completed with a kidney cushion, all done in supple, premium leather as in Poltrona Frau tradition. The design is contemporary but without sharp edges, “it’s like in a car, there are no straight lines, just curves, in plan view, in section, or whatever other view”,…

There’s serious competition between the simultaneous Tokyo and Los Angeles auto shows, located on opposite sides of the Pacific Rim, one declining in importance (relative to China), the second rising in esteem, centered as it is in the most important single market area in the world, southern California. A measure of it is that Porsche sells about one in five of its total production in the Golden State, explaining why the Germans chose Los Angeles to introduce its smaller SUV, the Macan, and why Japanese firms chose to present the Nissan GT-R with 600 horsepower or the Subaru Legacy concept here rather than in Tokyo. General Motors, which for decades had little market presence in California, introduced its new Chevrolet Colorado mid-size pickups, more aligned with Californian sensibilities than giant…

Often, details only reveal the story they have to tell when you look at the bigger picture, and in the case of the Opel Monza Concept, this is a story that began almost 50 years ago, in 1964. It is a story of original ideas, bold gambles on what the future may hold and creative experimentation, in which a long series of concept cars that have graced the global automotive stage and, in particular, the Frankfurt Motor Show – a strategically important showcase for the Russelsheim based carmaker – have played a fundamental role. Renamed IAA Legends, these eight cars formed the backdrop for the event organised by Opel at its headquarters following the car’s presentation at the last Frankfurt Show. From the Experimental GT – the first concept car…

Inventing a new type of car that meets the needs and tastes of the public means an unquestionable competitive edge, as Nissan happily confirmed with the launch of its Qashqai in 2006 when crossovers were not yet flavour of the month. The transition to the next generation, however, is usually very demanding. “The new Qashqai is the outcome of years of dedicated effort, with an important contribution from our design centre here”, explains Shiro Nakamura, Design vice president, at the official presentation in London on 7 November. “Our primary aim was to confirm our leadership in crossovers”, continued Nakamura, recalling that in the meantime the smaller Juke had come on to the market and the Qashqai should therefore be slotted in between the Juke and the bigger Murano. In addition,…

Each year since 2003 the Design Challenge theme has been chosen by the DesignLA Board of Directors made up of a dozen design studio executives. Automotive design studios from around the world are invited to participate and last year, studios from Germany, Japan, China and the U.S. competed to design “Biomimicry & Mobility 2025: Nature’s Answer to Human Challenges.” With biological knowledge doubling every five years, designers now have the instruments and the capacity to mimic nature like never before. Nature is becoming one of the best R&D labs we know. The Design Challenge asked automotive design studios to design a vehicle experience that uses biomimicry to increase the efficiency of our human capacity and improve mobility. Saic won with Roewe Mobilliant, a proposal that identifies an interesting solution to…

“The decision to buy a motorbike comes from the heart, otherwise no one would buy one.” That’s how Adrian Morton sums up the essence of his work as a motorcycle designer at the head of one of Italy’s most admired world brands, MV Agusta. “This is even truer for a brand like ours. And our design has to be up to par, we have to create emotion even if it is hard to describe what that means in stylistic terms. A feeling for the bike must be triggered right from the clay model, a passion for the form dynamics that are taking shape”.A message transmitted in this case by the sculpted volumes of the Turismo Veloce 800, the latest creation to come out of the Centro Ricerche Castiglioni in San…

Distributors/Distributori Australia Europress Distributors Pty. Ltd. Unit 3 119 Mcevoy Street Alexandria - N.S.W. 2015 Belgium A.M.P. S.A. Lenniksebaan 451 Route de Lennik 1070 Anderlecht Brazil Magazine Express ltda Av. Dr. Gastao Vidigal, 2200 05314-000 Sao Paulo (SP) Canada Speedimpex Distribution Inc. 1040 Martin Grove Road, Unit 6 Ontario, M9W 4W4, Toronto Denmark A/S Bladkompagniet - Islevdalvej 205 DK 2610 Rodovre France Presstalis 30 rue Raoul Wallenberg 75019 Paris Finland Lehtipiste Ltd - P.O. BOX 105 00089 Sanoma Germany W. E. Saarback Gmbh Hans-Boekler Strasse, 19 50354 Hurt-Hermulheim Great Britain Comag Specialist Division Tavistock Works Tavistock Road West Drayton, Middl. UB7 7QX Holland Betapress BV Import Department Burg Krollaan, 14 P.P. Box 77 5126 PT Gilze Bruil en van de Staay Postbox 75 7940 AB Meppel Hong Kong Foreign Press…