VW Bora – Driven To Write

Blow-In

An unfamiliar wind from afar.

Volkswagen Bora. Marbella: 2023. Image: The author.

What in the name of Piëch has been blown in on the Mediterranean breeze today? Something from the Adriatic, or maybe even further afield? Taken at first glance it’s simply a well preserved example of the underappreciated and increasingly rare Volkswagen Bora, but take a closer look and… now hold on a second! It certainly had me scratching my head in perplexity during my afternoon stroll last Sunday.

For all appearances, it seemed to be a curious hybrid^[1] of Bora and successor-Jetta. Once successfully pinned and mounted, it then became a matter of establishing exactly what I had. The results of this, I’m forced to admit, remain inconclusive. But I’ll come back to that. Beforehand, we really ought to Continue reading “Blow-In”

Anniversary Waltz 1999 – Pre Millennial Tension

Waltzing into a new Millennium.

As fireworks crackled over the midnight skies and the twentieth century was bid adieu, we peered hopefully, if somewhat tentatively into a technologically dominated future, on one hand embraced, yet quietly dreaded. At least amongst those who weren’t gleefully predicting, if not the end of days itself, then at least imminent technological catastrophe. Y2K, aka the millennium bug was (loosely speaking), a coding issue pertaining to the storage of calendar year data, meaning that the rollover to the year 2000 carried with it the potential for all manner of unsavoury consequences.

It was widely believed at the time that without adequate mitigation, Y2K could precipitate widespread system malfunctions, and in the most doom-laden scenario (of which there was no shortage at the time), the complete failure of the digital networks which were increasingly dominating our lives, to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 1999 – Pre Millennial Tension”

Convergences

About 15 years ago design rationalism enjoyed one of its occasional bouts of popularity. In a few cases the appliance of simple rules to simple shapes led to similar conclusions.

2004 Ford Fusion: three sharp corners, neat work.

What we should be noticing in this slide show is the relation of the wing to the bumper and the treatment of the grille and bonnet. I noticed this originally because around about that time I occupied myself with a lamp design and without noticing how others did it arrived at something that looked very like the Fusion’s lamp.
Continue reading “Convergences”