Hot on the tracks of yesterday’s revised Lexus RX, I have decided to see what the 2016 Opel Astra would look like without its fussy C-pillar.
This sketch is messier than the Lexus because of the number of panels involved and the number of alternatives. And I am no good at rendering. I decided to go first for a version where the side-glass stopped at the door cut-out. I could have added a pane aft of the door but left it as the Occam’s Razor approach to the problem. Then I tried to take the side glass further back to make a slimmer C-pillar.
The area where the roof spoiler wraps ends at the top of the C-pillar is very problematic. In my two alternatives I have lowered the side glass. In reality, these graphic changes would demand wholesale reworking of the door apertures, and associated panels are not merely cosmetic. You don’t mess with door shut lines as the interior and exterior hang off these lines.
This is the current or now outgoing Astra, photographed in Dublin, as it happens. The image is courtesy of Opel Ireland.
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