Concept Cars – Driven To Write

And Then There Were Three

Three may be a crowd, but what a mosh pit…

On seeing the three Genesis concept line up, my initial reaction stopped me in my tracks. I saw modernity, striking lines, a confidence so lacking in many a competitor, but also a lineage, a history – well almost. Regardless of the brand’s short lived UK presence, centred upon ‘That London’, these potential people movers embody for this author, on screen at least, desirability above all else.

In Genesis parlance, “A beauty of innovation visualised by design” is a bold enough statement I choose not to argue with. Not wanting to Continue reading “And Then There Were Three”

Yellow Car-ster

A lemon squeezy concept from Mladá Boleslav.

A recent piece of mine mentioned Škoda having a sense of fun with their ghost car prototype from their EGV department. Then I found this. Škoda does have an odd way of giving names to their vehicles; the journalists of the car world (and occasionally those outside it) make mirth mightily with these monikers. There’s no point in naming these magazines or authors as we try to avoid such trivia at Driven to Write. My position is to Continue reading “Yellow Car-ster”

Denied: Cadillac Elmiraj (2013)

Somewhat lost amid Cadillac’s varied (and ongoing) revival efforts, this superb concept car proved that there’s still mileage in some traditional concepts and values.

Sheer look: Cadillac Elmiraj coupé, photo (c) Top Speed

There’s no better symbol for the American car industry’s post-oil crisis’ struggles to change and evolve than Cadillac.

For the past four decades at least, the former Standard Of The World has found it difficult to come to terms with changing demographics, markets and tastes. For too long, an increasingly outdated concept of luxury was upheld, before numerous attempts at bringing Cadillac up to date have largely failed for one reason or another. Only the ongoing success of the gargantuan Escalade SUV has prevented the marque from falling into utter oblivion. Continue reading “Denied: Cadillac Elmiraj (2013)”

Denied: Alfa Romeo Brera (2002)

To try and understand what exactly went wrong with the proud Alfa Romeo brand over the past 15 years, there is no better example than this ItalDesign concept car.

2002_alfa-romeo-brera-concept_03 — Alfa Brera, as imagined by Giorgetto Giugiaro, photo (c) leblogauto.com

Admittedly, there is a production car by the name of Alfa Romeo Brera, of which 21,661 units were built between 2005 and 2010 at Pininfarina’s Grugliasco factory. It even shares some visual traits with the 2002 concept car of the same name. But little of its character.

For the Brera, as originally envisaged by Giorgetto Giugiaro, was a genuine halo car. Which isn’t as far-fetched a proposal as it may appear at first, for Alfa had commissioned quite a few of these over the decades: From the outdated-yet-pretty 33 Stradale, over the charming-but-ill-conceived Montreal to the bold-for-boldness’-sake SZ. Continue reading “Denied: Alfa Romeo Brera (2002)”

Fun and Games for Sunday

With the 2005 C-Airplay, Citroën aimed to re-introduce the notion of frivolity to the urban runabout. It never came to pass, but it just might have inspired something which did.

The problem with writing about cars is the often futile task of establishing and then sifting information with any degree of accuracy. I mention this as preface and by way of cowardly disclaimer. Whether this piece contains anything of merit, or is merely speculative fluff with which to Continue reading “Fun and Games for Sunday”

The Skyscraper Visible Behind the Grazing Herd

The Geneva Motor Show is happening soon and for the 16th year in a row I will not be going. This car, by GFG Style, will be on display.

2018 GFG Style Sybilla concept car: Automotive News

I didn’t go to the Geneva show at any time before sixteen years ago either but it wasn’t on my radar before then.

Going to Geneva is one of a trio of things I haven’t yet done and seriously definitely really mean to within the next year. The others are to attend Fasnacht in Switzerland and to Continue reading “The Skyscraper Visible Behind the Grazing Herd”

Sensuelle Pureté

An oddball concept car by an almost forgotten French coachbuilder retrospectively turns out to be an almost eerily prescient source of inspiration.

1996-heuliez-intruder-concept — Was this on Gorden Wagener’s bedroom wall? photo (c) motor1.com

Daimler AG Chief Creative Officer and creator of hot & cool Sensual Purity®, Gorden Wagener, once stated that he doesn’t worship any other car designer, preferring to Continue reading “Sensuelle Pureté”

DTW Summer Re-Issue: “Let’s Sort This Out, Shall We?”

Recently we have been discussing the origins of the Citroën XM.

_{[First posted Nov 28, 2016, but well worth a second read as it’s a first rate bit of research.]}

Here are as many of the influences I can find, not counting the aspects of the car that draw on Citroen’s own general heritage. The roll call is long and not exclusive. However, it begins with the 1974 Lotus Eclat which has a similar dropped window line, one of the XM’s signature features. Deschamp’s drawing looks like a saloon Eclat, if you Continue reading “DTW Summer Re-Issue: “Let’s Sort This Out, Shall We?””

Micropost: 1985 Saab Experimental Vehicle

This is one of the cars I saw at the Saab Car Museum in Trollhattan, Sweden.

1085 Saab EV concept car — 1985 Saab EV concept car

It reminded me of some other 80’s aerodynamic cars of the same time but when I went looking nothing matched. I found a hint of the rear window and boot in the Subaru SVX. More than a few GM concept cars from Oldsmobile, Saturn and Buick had similar surfaces. Yet there wasn’t that one car which made me think: yes, that’s the one. Do our readers have any suggestions?

Image sources: left and right

Concept Car Du Jour

What’s hard to believe is that this design was the product of seasoned designers.

The 1993 Nissan AQ-X has several small and large errors that add up to something of a disaster. But we will learn from this. Being charitable, it’s a packaging car. The rear compartment has stupendous legroom. The doors open wide for easy ingress and, when you need to, egress. Up close the vehicle is finished to a professional standard (I mean at about 10 cm distance). At 10 metres you begin to wonder whether the person who had sketched the car had sketched many cars before this. Continue reading “Concept Car Du Jour”

Let’s Sort This Out, Shall We?

Recently we have been discussing the origins of the Citroën XM.

Cars That Could have Been Citroëns – 1980 Ital Design Medusa

What you say isn’t always necessarily what you mean.

As Europe’s leading car design consultancy, Ital Design has always been in the business of ideas, and while they could to some extent predict the future in styling terms, they couldn’t necessarily convince the industry to follow their lead, which saw many promising styling studies on the cutting room floor. But in the industry’s defence, the price of failure has always been high.
Continue reading “Cars That Could have Been Citroëns – 1980 Ital Design Medusa”

2016 Citroen Cxperience Concept

Sufficient time has elapsed now for Citroen to admit to making the CX.

Make that 25 years in the dog house before they could bear to put the name, or something like it, on their latest concept car, the Cxperience. Thancx, Citroen. Extrapolating from this we may have the Xmination concept car in 2026. The car is showcasing the drivetrain and not the appearance. We’ll see what others have to say about the oily/electrical bits first. Continue reading “2016 Citroen Cxperience Concept”

2016 Cadillac Escala Concept Car Interior

Last week I mentioned a bit of news from Cadillac and promised I would return to that when the car had been revealed. That happened. Here is my response.

2016 Cadillaci Escala interior: source — 2016 Cadillac Escala interior: source

As you might recall the teaser photo drew our attention to the spangly OLED technology which is going to grace Cadillacs in future. I expected the follow-up news to deal with a new exterior form-language for Cadillac. Much of the commentary dealt with that, with less on the interior. Previous Cadillac show cars at Pebble Beach included the well-received Ciel of 2011 and the Elmiraj coupe from 2013 and people expected something more production-ready. They discussed that too. Continue reading “2016 Cadillac Escala Concept Car Interior”

Morphologie du Monospace

The genepool of the Monovolume is littered with evolutionary cul-de-sacs. Today, we present two examples from a highly likely source.

Citroen C 10 'Coccinelle'. Image: caradisiac — Citroen C 10 ‘Coccinelle’. Image: caradisiac

It should surprise nobody to discover that Citroën were at the forefront of monospace research. Indeed, studies into such a vehicle began under the supervision of André Lefèbvre as far back as the early 1950’s. A series of mono-volume prototypes were built under the Prototype-C nomenclature, culminating in the 1956 C 10 seen above. Continue reading “Morphologie du Monospace”

Cars That Could Have Been Citroëns – Ital Design M8

Ital Design’s M8 styling concept was all about the CX – in just about every sense of the word.

Amid the raised eyebrows surrounding the 1978 announcement of the radical Megagamma concept, this Giugiaro styling proposal, diametrically opposed to Ital Design’s landmark mono-volume, was largely ignored. Frankly, the M8 is more of what one would have expected from Giorgetto’s magic marker in 1978, even if its uncanny resemblance to the Citroën CX was possibly its most notable aspect. Continue reading “Cars That Could Have Been Citroëns – Ital Design M8”

Great Concepts But Don’t Let the Designer Speak About Them, Please.

Thomas Ingenlath – dedicated follower of fashion. How disappointing.

CMA has helped us to capture something special, something youthful in our new concept cars. They have an energy, a disruptive and engaging urban character that makes them stand out.” So says Thomas Ingenlath (Senior VP Design) about the Concept 40 shown today by Volvo. When I turned my keyboard to this little bit of news I intended to do a short design review. Instead I saw the word “disruptive” thrown into the word salad Mr Ingenlath spouted in his attempts to sound modern, up-to-speed and edge-like (edgy?). Disruptive is a word used by futurologists and fans of Uber and Airbnb to dramatize technology that changes things.

Continue reading “Great Concepts But Don’t Let the Designer Speak About Them, Please.”

Geneva Bites – Japanese Concepts: The Bad

Roving reporter, Robertas Parazitas continues his trawl through the fleshpots of Geneva. Two concepts in particular captured his ire.

Image: autovia-media

Mazda RX-Vision: A woefully silly car from a manufacturer which is getting so much right.

Lexus LF-FC: A certain appealing lairiness, but they need to try harder.

Geneva Bites – Japanese Concepts: The Good

Roving reporter Robertas Parazitas sifts Japanese conceptual wheat from chaff at Geneva.

Image: autovia-media

The Japanese car makers treated us to a veritable host of concept cars. Some were production cars in all but detail, others are pointers to the more distant, but credible future, which probably still includes doorhandles and window frames, and possibly, just possibly sub-20″ diameter wheels.

In the best pre-Boring Boring CAR tradition, I’ve divided them into the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good: Mitsubishi Concept eX. An electric crossover – what else could it be these days? Strongly suggests that Mitsubishi are finding their way back.

Nissan IDS concept. First seen at Frankfurt, and named in honour of British politician Ian Duncan Smith, who has 12.5% Japanese content. Just how much will make it to the next Leaf? Going by recent experience, more than we might think.

Subaru XV Concept: Presages the XV replacement – shouldn’t it be the XVI? A bit tame, but Gulf colours always win me over:

Whatever Happened To… Enrico Fumia

We asked that question a while back. Quite by chance I found this concept car done by or under the superivision of Signor Fumia.

The idea revolves around symmmetry. From such excercises one learns how much one takes for granted in the form language of a conventional design. This is Enrico Fumia and the side profile of the car. Continue reading “Whatever Happened To… Enrico Fumia”

A Concept for Sunday – 1985 Peugeot Griffe 4

Earlier in the week we discussed the phenomenon of glazed C-pillars – a design feature popular during the mid-to late 1980’s. Here’s another example of the breed.

Image via carstyling.ru — Image: carstyling.ru

Pininfarina’s 1985 Griffe 4 concept was created to honour the carrozzeira’s 30-year association with Peugeot, which began with the 403 model. What’s interesting here is not only its use of the glazed C-pillar treatment, (if indeed they can be described as pillars at all), but the fact that it resembles a rather prettier Subaru XT. Continue reading “A Concept for Sunday – 1985 Peugeot Griffe 4”

Fossil Traces: Porsche Panamericana Concept

Porsche’s win at the 1986 Paris Dakar rally with the 959 must have left some residual sand in their shoes, prompting this piece of conceptual frivolity – the 1989 Panamericana.

tcarsthatnevermadeit-PanAmerica1 — Rinspeed couldn’t have made it look any sillier. Panamericana by Porsche – image via carsthatnevermadeit

Part 911, part Baja dune buggy, part Hotwheels toy, Harm Legaay’s Panamericana was Porsche sounding out its fanbase as to the limits of where the 911 concept could be stretched. As we all know now, the answer was not nearly far enough. Continue reading “Fossil Traces: Porsche Panamericana Concept”

Crossing A Rubicon – Aston Martin’s DBX

Every so often, a concept car symbolises the crossing of an invisible line. Here’s one of them.

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer next to the DBX concept-Geneva 2015 - image via motorauthority — You’d imagine they’d have found a jacket to fit him… Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer announces the DBX concept-Geneva 2015 – image via motorauthority

The Aston Martin DBX represents the best clue yet to the Gaydon-based marque’s future intentions. Aston Martin’s new CEO, Andy Palmer has stated a version of this car will be produced, telling the Telegraph last week; “The DBX is not an SUV, it’s an expression of a GT sports car; a DB crossing over into that usable space… it will be a five-door vehicle, and it won’t grow much bigger than the DBX.” Continue reading “Crossing A Rubicon – Aston Martin’s DBX”

Renault Megane – Here’s One They Made Earlier

Patrick Le Quément’s legacy of highly convincing, but unrealised Renault concepts begins here…

Renault seem to have been making attempts to crack the luxury car market for decades now. During the 1970’s they offered us the R30 hatchback – a kind of updated R16 with a V6 engine and luxury trim. It wasn’t a bad car – in fact contemporary reports suggest it was rather good. But success eluded it – although the smaller-engined R20 model sharing an identical bodyshell can’t have aided matters.

During the 1980’s Renault tried again with the more attractive looking Robert Opron-inspired R25. They got around the issue this time by offering the same model with a range of engines and while the car proved moderately successful outside of its home market, it too failed to make serious inroads upon rivals like the contemporary Audi 100 and Ford Scorpio. Continue reading “Renault Megane – Here’s One They Made Earlier”

Theme : Concepts – Yet Another DS Stunner!

Steaming Hot News From Paris!

Following on the heels of the Divine, the Paris Salon was today stunned by another offering from PSA’s ambitious DS brand, its latest concept the DSupérficiâle. Originally thought by diehard enthusiasts to be a homage to the D Super, itself the successor to the classic ‘no-frills’ ID19, PSA was anxious to dispel such misconceptions. At the press launch, DS spokesman Jean Conneries, standing in front of a still-shrouded shape, explained the philosophy behind the car.

We are foremost a French brand. We must build on that as the 21st Century progresses. However, in the past we have mistakenly concentrated too much on those aspects of heritage that are specifically Citroën. France has a huge heritage that it has bequeathed the World and foremost in that is philosophy. The philosophy of this car is ….. philosophy itself! Continue reading “Theme : Concepts – Yet Another DS Stunner!”