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Retro cars feature strongly in many manufacturers marketing and design plans over the next few years. Whether the trends toward car design has become stale or people genuinely want these cars is not clear..... 2007 Fiat 500 Suzuki LC 2006 Lancia Fulvia Fenomenon Stratos 2007 Toyota Land Cruiser These are all very close to the original concepts, and I feel they work well. What other ground breaking cars deserve to make a comeback?
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A good point.
To me it shows car designers have got no where else left to go/have no more new ideas.
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MWF
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Posts: 2,945
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I think if you take a good look at older car design you will see retro ifluences going back even then. Lots of olders car tried to pull in classic styling elements from the past.
I think the 2007 500 is brilliant and one of my favourite concept cars.
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Generally, we are no longer looking to the future, as perhaps we did in the 60's and the 80's, now we seem to be drawing back to the fun we had years ago when things were simpler. thats my take on it.
Its quite nice to see some old faces up there, but i equally like fresh designs, such as the way Renault and Ford design for example
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it doesn't matter if it's a Morris Marina or a Toyota Celica - it's what you do with it that counts
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Generally, we are no longer looking to the future, as perhaps we did in the 60's and the 80's, now we seem to be drawing back to the fun we had years ago when things were simpler. I suggest you pick up the latest Intersection if you believe thats true,.. it's new section is all about the new concept cars this issue and there is some cracking ideas in there and some crazy superfuture stuff too. There is a nod to the past in some of the new concepts coming out. I quite like that though.
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I've got to agree with this one
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SteB
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Posts: 1,408
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Is this what they call 'Retro Futurism' in design circles - how car designers thought cars of the future would look back in retro times ?
I'm liking the suzuki lots
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I think all of those are fabulous.
I reckon that this 'retro styling' can only be a good thing, and let's hope all of those make it into volume production.
It is harder than ever to create a genuinely fresh design... and it seems whenever something radical does come along it is quickly watered down. Think how fab the Focus looked when it was first launched. And how drab the latest model is....
By using the 'Retro' element, the identifiable link to the past draws people in, feeds on their memories etc.
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New money for old rope?DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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I like them. I love that Suzuki! It's a trend that's been around for a while now - how old is the "new" Beetle? The thing is that the cars pictured above, and the others (new Beetle, Mini, Ford GT etc) only represent a small fraction of the new cars available/new concepts. It's just that they seem to grab more attention. Have you seen the new Honda Civic and the Mitsubishi Lancer? No retro styling there just really sharp design. Same with the Megane, even though it's a few years old now it still looks great IMO. In the mid 80s european car design went through a really bland phase (Sierra excepted) and it's good to see that we've come quite a way out of that. For as long as I can remember people have always said "all new cars look the same, it's not like it was in my day", and it's true. But the past couple of years have seen some really interesting shapes and features - I love it Cars I would like to see brought back in a retro-styling way: * Lancia Monte-Carlo * Frogeye Sprite * 2CV * Capri (I have a whole seperate rant about Ford, their coupes and the media!) In the 50s American car manufactureres were heavily influenced by the aircraft of the time, and the Jet Age inspired some very wacky styling. I can't really think of any major influence since then other than the looking-back-retro-inspiration. We live in an age where there doesn't seem to be anything outside of the car industry to draw influence from so I guess it's only natural to look inwards and back. Now it's all the "information age", a car that takes influences from a beige TCP/IP router wouldn't work I don't think ;D Maybe the iMac/iPod, but that's more a convergance of utility thing rather than a styling thing. Feel free to disagree of course While I'm here, can anyone list any links to good concept car sites? I'd love to see what's happening at the moment, the mags never seem to cover what's happening with enough depth.
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dp
Posted a lot
DP Race Tech
Posts: 1,044
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darstuncherry in da house: Retro cars feature strongly in many manufacturers marketing and design plans over the next few years.Check out www.cardesignnews.com under Portfolios there you can see some of the stuff the "kids" are doing at various design schools, I just love to check out this site every now and then just to see what's going on, they also have some good show coverage..... Sadly most of the Retro designs just stay design studies, just see how slowly the New Beetle took of for VW, and the new Thunderbird, most people are not ready for retro, sadly.....
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Last Edit: Dec 5, 2005 10:58:52 GMT by dp
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Check out www.cardesignnews.com under Portfolios there you can see some of the stuff the "kids" are doing at various design schools, I just love to check out this site every now and then just to see what's going on, they also have some good show coverage..... I know
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New money for old rope?DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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That's a great site DP - I'll be having a good look through there! I've noticed a programme on Men and Motors too, presented by a bloke whose name I can't remember and used to present Tomorrows World. But it doesn't really go into any depth and seems to consist entirely of "these designers are MAD! As if we'll be driving stuff like THAT any time soon", which misses the whole point.
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Maybe the iMac/iPod, but that's more a convergance of utility thing rather than a styling thing. You could design an iPod styled car by using the same design cues. I read an article detailed why everyone thought that the iPod design was "clean". Apparently it is to do with the association of white and silver being used in bathrooms, it is hard wired into us (westerners) that the design paradigm is "clean". By identifying these paradigms car designers can do a design based on something else. Think of the wedge shapes from the Jet age, and the computerised/digital dashes from the mid 80's computer age. For the information age we're getting back to digital dashes, one of the current concept cars (forgot which one) has the whole dash made up of one flast screen, both passenger and drivers side.
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Mike D
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,197
Club RR Member Number: 57
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New money for old rope?Mike D
@v8mike
Club Retro Rides Member 57
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Good point HoTWire. As soon as I said that and hit "post reply", I thought of the Ford O21c - an iMac on wheels if ever there was one! metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyo/454/feature.aspnamed after the Pantone code for the colour... Although I'm not sure why there's a lime green one in there! I don't know why but i really like that!
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Even that Ford iMac thingy has 'retro' styling cues. Am I the only one who can draw parallels with the Mustang, Dodge charger and even MK1 Granada / Mk3 Cortina lurking in there?
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dp
Posted a lot
DP Race Tech
Posts: 1,044
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darrenw in da house: I thought of the Ford O21c - an iMac on wheels if ever there was one!Killer designer Marc Newson did that Ford, the best part of the car is the way the trunk opens, like a drawer!!!! The man is well known for NON-linear thinking.... My GF has a Philipe Starck designed Aprilia Moto 6.5 wich is a real nice bike but sadly Aprilia did not put X1 into production, if they did one would be in my workshop.... Do a search on Marc Newson and you'll se the Biomega bicycles and restaurants hes done, wayyyy coool....
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Last Edit: Dec 5, 2005 12:28:57 GMT by dp
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Generally, we are no longer looking to the future, as perhaps we did in the 60's and the 80's, now we seem to be drawing back to the fun we had years ago when things were simpler. I suggest you pick up the latest Intersection if you believe thats true,.. it's new section is all about the new concept cars this issue and there is some cracking ideas in there and some crazy superfuture stuff too. There is a nod to the past in some of the new concepts coming out. I quite like that though. Thought that might repeat on me never start with generally, what i meant was it seemed to me that in the past everyone looked to the future and how exciting that would be, now into the naughties, we are sort of living in 'the future' and it isnt all we'd expected. Althogh there is some great advances, many like to romanticise about the past. and the new beetles, minis and mustangs etc cant seem to fail, to inject that character back into modern life although they are limited by modern safety regulations. Thats what i was getting at. like or lump these designs, i'm quite happy to see some of them. Thanks for the tip off ill be getting that Intersection soon, need to get me a good newsagents looking forward to seeing some risky new designs will read all the other stuff here now, ipod/bathroom thing was interesting...
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it doesn't matter if it's a Morris Marina or a Toyota Celica - it's what you do with it that counts
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I find it amusing (and frustrating) to see how the car makers pick up on their back catalogue only when it suits them, otherwise most of them (outside of the stylists department) can't give a stuff about anything they made a few years back.
That being said, if any of those concepts in the original post make it to production in that form (and not in the awful way new Beetle/Mini did) then they'd get a thumbs up from me. Suzuki really hits on that barely-a-car look of 60's Japanese models.
Anyone else seen that Honda ad where the guy goes through loads of Honda vehicles? Nice to see them drawing on their heritage.
I'd still like to see some really fresh ideas come through. That new Megane-sized Citroen catches my eye, in 3-door form anyway.
Slightly o/t, but modern housebuilding is really stuck in the past. I work in the construction industry, and it saddens me to see all this new stuff going up trying to hark back to older houses. Yet the people who live in them go mad for all the latest gadgets, what's going on there?
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