Table of contents for No. 199 in AUTO & DESIGN

The 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit was superficially all about the new Corvette, seventh generation of the classic American sports car. Now entering its seventh decade of existence as a dedicated two-seater, it has evolved from a slow, clumsy British-style roadster with no competition potential (its dimensions all copied from the Jaguar XK-120), to a coupe (and from the 2013 Geneva show onward, a convertible) capable of rivaling Europe’s highest-performance models in every way. The Corvette has had an enviable career. Every other manufacturer of two seat sports cars, save Porsche and Mercedes, has had breaks when they were abandoned for a period. But the vehicles of real importance, the big pickup trucks that generate most of the profits enjoyed by the American and Italo-American companies were…

Mercedes design director Gorden Wagener uses the term ‘rebel’ to describe the new CLA, although in reality, the new CLA is more of a sure-fire bet than a rebel in the three-pointed star’s range. A decade ago, the CLS was the first to test the profitable waters of the four-door coupé genre, and many others have now followed in its footsteps. Mercedes has now decided that the time is right to apply the same design philosophy to a medium sized model, based on the MFA platform used by the brand in its determined foray into the front wheel drive world (and already used for the B and A Class). The CLA, previewed in the shape of the Style Coupé concept at last year’s Beijing and Paris shows, introduces a whole…

Retain the forcefully lively character of the DS3 while adding a touch of open car glamour. That is the aim of the DS3 Cabrio project developed on the basis of the highly successful closed body hatch which has sold more than 200,000 units in less than three years from its market launch. “We wanted to preserve the DS3’s unique aspects, particularly those graphic elements that make it unmistakable from side and rear”, says Thierry Metroz, head of Citroën styling for the DS line. Along with the main features from the original design, Metroz mentions another fundamental value: decorability, namely the opportunities offered to customers to change details on the DS3, starting with the roof. On the Cabrio this is made of canvas but it is not any old hood: it…

There can be nothing more intriguing than to take a trip into the world of the coachworks in the years between 1930 and 1960, the golden age of luxury craftsmen but also of those coachbuilders who, like stylists, dressed up the chassis of the prestigious car manufacturers. This latest book by Serge Bellu, journalist and illustrator as well as author of numerous books on the history of cars, starts from how important it is to correctly define the meaning of the word coachworks. “It is not just aluminium or steel covering the mechanical parts of a car, it is also a general word that encompasses all the trades that come together to create a car body”. And that’s where the reader’s journey begins, by first making a leap backwards in…

Quality and Chinese cars are not an obvious match. That may change with the arrival of the new Qoros brand which has been designed, developed and engineered from scratch by a newly founded company with a surprisingly different background. Qoros’s main aim is to create a brand with an above average perceived quality, able to compete with the upper echelon of European and Japanese volume brands, initially in the very competitive C-segment. The need to improve the Chinese car industry’s quality levels was taken on board by China’s leading national carmaker Chery Automobile who decided something had to be done about it way back in 2006. But they soon realised that a fresh start from the ground up would be more successful. So in 2007, a new company Qoros Automotive…

As a 21st century car, namely a car that is as modern as they come, the new Qoros could not disappoint that mounting number of users who are dedicated to “perpetual connection” through their computers, tablets and above all smart phones. The Qoros meets this need with a device (HMI, Human Machine Interface) which, in the automotive infotainment world, is perhaps the most intelligent, powerful and functional imaginable; and whose 8-inch touch screen takes pride of place in the centre of the console. The advanced software and high performing hardware (companies like Microsoft for systems development, Harman for the modem, Neusoft-Alpine for hardware and software, Iconmobile for development of the in-house concept, Wireless Car for the internet connection protocol, all played a part) and the most attractive graphics were designed…

The third body type, the two-box hatchback, is quite distinct from the Sedan; the Cross Hybrid version of it was presented in Geneva. It has a gutsy look and proportions, and shares the same modular floor-pan but with a specific design for the tail and roof. “It is the youngest and most dynamic of the three cars,” noted Philipp Eberl, who worked on the exterior design of the entire model family under the guidance of Gert Hildebrand. The wheelbase and track are the same as the sedan’s, but its total length is shorter, 4445 mm instead of 4615 mm. This was achieved by shortening the rear overhang, creating a compact car body, with dynamic proportions. The side view maintains the lateral glazing with the characteristic hockey stick motif, but the…

At the end of last year, construction of the brand new Qoros plant in Changshu, in Jiangsu province, about 80 km north-west of Shanghai, was terminated. All the brand’s models will be built here, destined to be marketed initially on the Chinese market, but soon also in Europe. The assembly lines have begun to turn out the first prototypes, and the personnel hiring and training programmes are also underway. The workforce is expected to reach 1500 by the end of 2013. On the other hand, when the plant is working at full steam the workforce will number 150,000 (between 2014 and 2015), and could in future increase to 250,000, although it actually has a total capacity of 400,000 units. The plant has already achieved an important result: on September 28…

Call it the Ferrari show. The hit of this year’s Geneva show, despite the presence of many admirable everyday cars, was Ferrari’s LaFerrari. It was totally surrounded by admiring crowds from the instant it was revealed, and probably as many photos were taken of this first of an expected 499 production run as of all other vehicles in Palexpo combined. Rumors suggested the entire lot was already spoken for, despite a stratospheric price tag. The most favorable aspect of it all comes from the distilled opinion of a dozen or so highly experienced and well-qualified active and retired designers: “It looks like a Ferrari.” And all of them lamented the gratuitous gestural line on the rear fender that has no reason to exist other than someone’s whim, apparently. The Ferrari…

There were quite a few makers of two-seat sports cars in 1953, when Chevrolet, then largest-selling car manufacturer in the world, introduced its own stylish roadster, the Corvette. Of them all, only Chevrolet and Porsche have continued to make two-seaters without interruption during the ensuing six decades. Dimensionally modelled on the Jaguar XK-120, the first generation Corvette was not much of a performance car, available only with a sluggish two-speed automatic transmission and a six-cylinder engine. With the introduction of a modern lightweight 4.3 liter V-8 for 1955, the seeds of today’s Corvette, still powered by the fourth generation of that same brilliant engine, were sown. Corvettes are now capable of rivaling any road going sports car made anywhere in the world. The first sedan-based chassis was retained until 1962,…

Ssangyong is looking to the future with a very precise growth plan. The arrival of the Mahindra in 2010 relaunched the Korean brand which has announced at least three new models by the end of 2016 and a new styling language that has been entrusted to Italian firm I.DE.A. Institute with the aim of optimising the company’s attack on European markets. Meantime, after the medium class Suv Korando (Giugiaro design) we now have the third generation of the range-topping Rexton Suv which has so far accounted for 50% of Ssangyong sales. The successor to the Rodius is close to the finishing line, while Geneva has turned the spotlight on the Cuv compact SIV-1; already being studied is a segment B/C MPV and a “trendy” compact with 4WD mechanicals. The third…

The most important aspect of the complete definition of a new brand is giving it a face. So it is no surprise that Gert Hildebrand and his team worked more on the front end of the new car than on any other element. Plenty of other “well-known faces” needed to be taken into account, both for their own prestige and to avoid inappropriate similarities. The Qoros designers started from two key concepts, modern and dynamic, to establish new characteristic features that are well proportioned and imbued with the necessary status. The grille, a fundamental element of any brand image, was interpreted as a huge “U” closed at the top by a chrome bar that incorporates the clearly visible logo; it is cut through by a cross beam that gives breadth…

For a brand that puts the quality, elegance and comfort of life on board in first place, the colours and materials of the trim are particularly important. A dedicated team was immediately set up when the project for the new cars was launched, to take charge of research and definition, as design manager Petra Widmann explained: “Our activities focused on the Qoros values: refined elegance and modern style conceived to last. Our concept studies referred to the broader parameters and trends in other design disciplines, from architecture to fashion and photography.” Petra Widmann’s Color&Trim team, which was initially located in Graz like all their colleagues from exterior and interior design, now works in Munich, coordinating with Svenja Mai, the design manager at the Qoros studio in Shanghai, which has opened…

The Qoros designers opted for a number of important Chinese symbols to introduce themselves to the world. These symbols are embodied in the stand at the Geneva Motor Show where the new carmaker made its debut in society. Some people may not have noticed the burgundycoloured stripe that crossed the stand diagonally, or the two white platforms, curving at the ends, from which the new car dominated its first public appearance, or the large grey parallelepiped that enclosed the two concepts, or even the two stones by the side of the walkway. In fact, it would only have taken a little imagination to see in those elements the Silk Road (the symbolic link between the culture of the East and that of the West), two large open rolls of paper,…

As soon as the logo had been defined, the designers could turn their attention to its application in the various product contexts and in communication. A template was created, envisaging 2D and 3D applications. The former was used for all printed materials, brochures, and posters at dealerships; the latter in particular for the logo used on the car. But there was one object that seemed to be designed specifically to match the shape of the logo: the key fob. As the drawings above show, the large Q of Qoros has seamlessly become the rectangular chromed frame that surrounds the door opening and closing buttons, with a small red LED that confirms activation. An object with a solid, simple and well-proportioned look, very Bauhaus. Non appena definito il logo, i designer…

A part from the engines there are no great differences between the Ford Fusion, that has been circulating in America for a while now, and the Ford Mondeo which was presented last year at the Paris Show but has not yet been put on the market in Europe, although this would appear to be imminent. The engines: there’s a bit of everything on the two sides of the pond for this Ford flagship: petrol, diesel, hybrid (including plug-in) even though the real surprise is that a car of this volume (it is 4.87 m long) is offered (obviously only in Europe) with an engine of just one litre capacity, namely the three-cylinder Ecoboost – already mounted on the Focus and C-Max – which may be small but still delivers a…

Open-air motoring is an established tradition for Volkswagen, and this tradition continues in and is consolidated by the new Beetle Cabriolet and Golf R Cabriolet. The Beetle Cabriolet is the most recent descendent of the historic Beetle Convertible, of which 1.4 million were made (out of a total of over 21 Beetles in all). The new car is offered in two variants, Design and Sport (the former more elegant and the latter more performance-oriented), and with five engines: the 1.2/105 bhp petrol and 1.6 TDI/105 bhp turbodiesel for the Design version, and the 1.4 TSI/160 bhp petrol, 2.0 TSI/200 bhp petrol and 2.0 TDI/140 bhp turbodiesel for the Sport. The immediate visual impact of the car, which measures 4278 mm in length and 1808 mm in width, is thanks to…

Two years after the launch of the five-year collaboration project between the Volkswagen Group and the Milan Polytechnic’s Master in Transportation & Automotive Design (see supplement to A&D 190), the early proposals targeting Expo 2015 are beginning to take shape. Opening partnership events is “Ecars for public services”, the project that sees the Skoda and Volkswagen brands in the frame, VW also in its commercial guise. Five projects have been developed, three main ones which attempt to solve problems typical of urban areas and two secondary ones developed in parallel regarding car sharing. All are the result of the work of ten students inspired by their passion for car design. The work is carried on in an open, intercultural climate, with specific in-depth training and a very broad overall theme…

The design brief that Gert Hildebrand was handed on 1 January 2011 when he took on the job of Qoros design chief was at once simple and complicated: to create a neat formal language capable of communicating values of quality, elegant and sophisticated, sturdy, without frills. A clear message, combined however with the total absence of any historical background usable as a benchmark. And this was exactly what the German designer and his quickly formed team began to build. The result was an authentic design objective synthesised in the claim “creating future history”. “When a designer undertakes a project of this kind from scratch, the temptation is to go for outright experimentation. We decided very quickly to discipline ourselves, motivating every decision on the basis of a function, whether comfort…

The Qoros 3 Estate is the vehicle that wasn’t there. In the sense that in the original range programme the station wagon variant was not part of the plans. But speed of reaction to and updating of strategies is, as we have seen, an integral part of the brand’s Dna, so it was quickly decided to add this version to the Quoros’s launch objective on the European market where this type of vehicle is much more popular than the classical “three box”. “By contrast, in China the combi architecture is in effect non-existent. I myself like it and I’ve designed it very willingly”, says Gert Hildebrand using the German term for the station wagon. “We developed it as efficiently as possible industrially speaking by keeping all parts possible, from the…

From the Austrian roads near to the Magna Steyr facility in Graz to test circuits all around the world: since the end of 2011, 60 Qoros prototypes have been tested for their compliance with the most rigorous European test standards. At all temperatures, from the cold of the proving ground in Advasjaur, Sweden, to the heat of the Australian desert, from mountain roads in the United States to the European circuits of Idiada in Tarragona, Spain, and Nardò (above), in southern Italy. And of course in China, where the cars will be built. Tests have been completed on the safety, air conditioning and lighting systems, chassis evaluation, structural durability, overall engine performance and overall driving comfort. The design function was also involved in this stage, creating a special camouflage outfit…

Without a past to fall back on, other than the many centuries of Chinese history, it is no easy task to set up a dealer network, not so much for the commercial aspects, but rather in terms of style and atmosphere. As Stefano Villanti, head of sales, marketing and product strategy, explained: “We will have to create car boutiques, particularly in China, in town centres, not the suburbs, where customers will be able to touch, verify and appreciate the quality of the product, and to understand the distinctive elements of the design and the trademark, understanding the spirit of the Qoros, and concluding, if there is approval, with the purchase of a car. A point of sale has to become a place of truth.” In other words, the opposite to…

The first 50 units produced by Qoros were manufactured in Germany. However, they are not cars but the 50 celebratory watches with which the new car-maker marks its foundation. The logo on the face of the chronograph reads “Qoros by Zeppelin”. For the time being a limited series of personalised watches will be reserved for the 50 executives and designers who have established the new company (number 1 was presented to the Vice-Chairman, Volker Steinwascher). Zeppelin is a well-known name in the world of top class timepieces: it already supplies its products to an important German carmaker. But there is more to this name. The 50 “Qoros by Zeppelin” watches have come to earth to make their debut at the Geneva Motor Show. The Show is held no more than…