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Becasue i've been a bit of a moron lately, and contributed in a manner not appropriate to this, or for that matter any forum (except perhaps one about kitche... Well, you know the rest) Here is my penance thread on Cars Of The Atomic Age. Now before i go on, i would like to just say this to kazz if indeed you are still bothering to check in. If you have just checked in, to read all the comments on your first thread on this forum, please do not be discouraged, it was all banter and fun, if a bit ill concieved. I for one hope that i have not put you off joining this forum as it is a great place, full of a wealth of knowledge, and i have enjoyed being part of it, as no doubt you will too should you decided to stick around, which hopefully you will. Perhaps get some pictures of your own project that you are hoping for help with, you may find that with the help and commeraderie on this forum you may not even need the help of a TV show. So then, Cars Of The Atomic Age. I've long been a fan of this type of car, and it's designers, infact back when i was in college i even wrote a 5000 word paper on the great Harley Earl, a car designer who i have always admired, along with the likes of Virgil Exner, and others of the era. My facination for these cars no doubt stems from the TV Batmobile, which was of course a modified Lincoln Futura concept car... Anyway, enough babble from me, lets have a load of photos!  TV Batmobile.  Lincoln Futura.  Cadillac Cyclone.  Ford Atmos.  Ford LaTosca.  Ford X-2000.  Ford Gyron.  Oldsmobile Golden ROcket.  Pontiac Firebird. and lastly (as i'm out of time on my lunch break)  Harley Earl, and his beautiful Buick LaSabre. |
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What I really like about these sort of concepts is how directly you can see their influence on the production models that followed. Those big wings, the bullet lights, huge curvey windscreens.
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On the custom side... Ed Roth's Orbitoron  |
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 This is amazing, 10 years before Star Trek, Edsel meets Kirk and they have a baby! Steve |
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Always loved that Batmobile. To me that is the only Batmobile. The others are just wrong.
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What I really like about these sort of concepts is how directly you can see their influence on the production models that followed. Those big wings, the bullet lights, huge curvey windscreens. Yeah, exactly that, i always feel a bit dissapointed by modern concept cars. They look fantastic, then the actual car comes out and it's a bit of a dissapointent. The one that springs immediately to mind was the Chrysler PT Cruiser...  WoW!! And then along came the production model...  What the hell happened? And it only got worse once people started to buy them...  Hmm... Nice! But i feel i'm starting to skate on thin ice now, so here's Virgil Exner, and his Plymouth XNR concept...  Now admittedly this never came to fruition, but of course not everthing does. However having said that many of his styling cues made it into production on the various Chrysler automotive offerings  Sadly i think that the days of such flambouyant styling are well and truly confined to the history books. This is due, not to the fact that the designers can't design such beauty, but because the corperate bean counters wont allow it to come into to production, such was the case of the PT Cruiser, and many others. A beautiful design, stiffled by the bean counters! Even our own Austin Allegro suffered from these penny pinching do badders!  WOW!!  WOAH!! What the hell happened? From thing of beauty to thing of comedy! |
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I like Allegro. To me that concept looks a lot like a Princess with Allegro lights and rear styling.
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Some of the Capri concepts over the last few years have been laughable but for me, the yanks have got it right with the 'new' Challenger, new Mustang etc. Really want to see more but ideally retro British tin. Our roads are getting smaller but the cars are bigger (Fiat 500L!) How about a 'New' Metro or Princess? Lol
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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You can't entirely blame the bean counters (never thought i'd say THAT!) If you are designing a car and you want it to work efficiently, and carry X number of passengers and Y cu/m of luggage with Z power plant achieving V MPG then you put your design in a wind tunnel to achieve a drag co-efficient of "T" or below. And it really doesn't matter whether the wind tunnel belongs to Ford, GM, Honda, Kia, BMW, or anyone else, the shape that comes out of the computer at the end will be the same!
And though these gorgeous and imaginative designs of the 50s LOOK aerodynamic, based largely, as they are, on aircraft and rocket designs, actually they are anything BUT aerodynamic in car terms, which is a completely different problem, since you want the end result to stick to the road and NOT fly!
Steve
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Rob M
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,915
Club RR Member Number: 41
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Vauxhall made a great play on the whole 'Car of the Future' thingy.
Then at the end of the ad the driver locks the door............with a key!! Mwahahahaha!!
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Always loved that Batmobile. To me that is the only Batmobile. The others are just wrong. YESSSS!!! Thought that was just me! who remembers THWACKO? BOOF? etc |
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Always loved that Batmobile. To me that is the only Batmobile. The others are just wrong. YESSSS!!! Thought that was just me! who remembers THWACKO? BOOF? etc I watched all the Adam West Batman as a lad, pure magic! It still makes me grin today, Adam west's tongue was so far into his cheek it was a wonder anyone could understand what he was saying! And the Lincoln is the first and undoubtedly the BEST Batmobile, all others are just refugees from Robocop! Steve |
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Vauxhall made a great play on the whole 'Car of the Future' thingy. Then at the end of the ad the driver locks the door............with a key!! Mwahahahaha!! You should pay more attention, he's not locking the car with the key (though you can do that) he's winding up the window with the key! How many cars then or now have this useful feature? Instead you get out of the car, realise you've not raised the window, get back in the car, put the key back in and turn the ignition on, raise the window, switch it off, get out, lock it, walk away! Then as you are walking away you notice that one of the kids has left a back window down! Back you go etc cursing mightily! I've had many Cavs in the last 10 years and this feature has saved me much time and cursing! Steve |
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YESSSS!!! Thought that was just me! who remembers THWACKO? BOOF? etc I watched all the Adam West Batman as a lad, pure magic! It still makes me grin today, Adam west's tongue was so far into his cheek it was a wonder anyone could understand what he was saying! And the Lincoln is the first and undoubtedly the BEST Batmobile, all others are just refugees from Robocop! Steve You've gotta love his star turn as 'Mayor Adam West' in Family Guy too. |
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