Daihatsu: Committed to cute since 1951.
When all boils down, Western culture leaves little room for anything other than the normative. If it isn’t masculine, it’s feminine (with slow acceptance of gender neutrality) but when parameters are so rigidly defined we must head to Japan for inspired creativity. The keijidōsha-car dimensions you have to play with are (all maximum) 3.4m long, 1.48m wide and just two metres tall. Go figure out a way to Continue reading “Hello Kitty”
Daihatsu’s abortive 1991 MX-5 fighter. Could it have been a winner?
It could be said that the arrival in 1989 of the Mazda MX5 was the catalyst, but in reality, it was part of a movement which had been building for some time. Ever since the compact, lightweight open two-seater had been relegated to the outliers of the specialist carmakers, the enthusiast press began agitating for a mainstream roadster revival.
Those leading manufacturers who had abandoned roadsters (or were soon about to) Continue reading “Tears Are Not Enough”
Compact and comely, the Daihatsu Copen Coupé is something of a balm to the crossover contagion.
Despite the inexorable decline and likely demise of the small sports car; victim to the kind of commercial logic that has seen crossovers and their ilk take over every sub-niche, there remains one market that is seemingly still immune from contagion. Japan’s Kei car scene.
Daihatsu’s diverting little Copen roadster requires little introduction given that Driven to Write has warmly spoken of its compact pleasures in the past. The first series Copen was officially discontinued in 2012, and since then, owing to Daihatsu’s regrettable withdrawal from the European market, Kei-car enthusiasts have been denied its current incarnation.
The contemporary Copen was designed from the outset, not only to be more angular and somewhat more technical in appearance, but also to Continue reading “Bonsai Aphrodite”
Recently we posted an article about a concept car from GFG Design and we didn’t much like it. So, asked reader Adrian Tebby, what do we like? And why?
Even if this article might end up being a bit of a restatement, we might get to extract some general attributes of a worthwhile design. I have taken a little while to think about recent cars so if they are here again they can be judged in a broader context and over a longer time. In a sense this article is a “best of” the concept designs we’ve been writing about for the last few years.
The Alfa Romeo by Touring Superleggera of 2012 is the first example that we swivel around to and face head on. That 2012 is now a bit of a while back is not that important so much as it was the first car to Continue reading “Can We Really Stand In Silence? Oh, We Can My Love”
Driven To Write 