Auto Design

PREMIERE AT THE PARIS MOTOR SHOW IN OCTOBER.

As the count down to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in China is coming to a close, the automotive industry – just back from the London Motor Show – has launched its count-down for the introduction of a wave of new cars at the Paris “Mondial de l’Automobile” Motor Show opening its gates to the public at large on October 4^th.

First on August 1^st to unveil its new baby is Ford.

The look of its new KA developed and engineered with the co-operation of Fiat and Italdesign-Giugiaro can now be seen in the first official pictures. The car is build in Poland on the industrial platform of the Fiat Panda and Cinquecento but its looks share nothing with the Italian rivals. The new KA looks charming and  attractive, a sort of miniature Fiesta but with a design and a personality of its own. Read the rest of this entry »

Eager to see and comment on the all-new Ford Ka, made in Poland by Fiat? Come back after midnight CET.

 FIAT 500 DIABOLIKA- COMING SOON.

Maria Paola and Alfredo Stola of Studiotorino simply could not resist the temptation to offer their own interpretation of the super-trendy Fiat 500.

First Maria Paola was asked by a private entrepreneur to help with the customizing of a “very luxurious” tuning of his own Fiat 500 called, certainly not by chance “Pepita” (Italian for Golden Nugget).

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Here is  the list of the renderings and scale models presented by the students of the Scuola Politecnica di Design of Milan for their Master degree. their works.

See report.

Alfa Romeo Coelus design by Ian Bunjak (Slovakja)

Alfa Romeo Camenae design by Ryu Seung-Wook (Korea)

Alfa Romeo Phoenix design by Iulian Bumbu (Rumania)

Alfa Romeo Tessa design by Murat Atvur (Turkey), Adam Denning (USA)

Alfa Romeo Orbita design by Mark Salerno (Australia) and Tulay Engin (Turkey)

Alfa Romeo 6C Torio design by James Edmund van der Merwe (Sud Africa) with Artem Popkov (Russia)

Alfa Romeo Essentija Design by Franco Grassi (Italy), Alessandro Fiorentino (Italy)

Alfa Romeo Exelixis design by Gabriel Feyer (Brasile), Kostantinos Paradeisou (Grecia)

Alfa Romeo MilleMiglia design by Aleksej Ivaskievic (Russia).

Click on the picture below to see all works.

SPD STUDENTS’ LOOK INTO ALFA ROMEO FLAGSHIP.

What will be the look of the next Alfa Romeo flagship? The car that will lead the return of the Italian brand to the U.S. market sometime around 2011.

The students graduating this year from the “Scuola Politecnica di Design” (SPD) of Milan, worked on the question with the support of the Alfa Romeo designers and following the direction of Mario Favilla. Recently they have presented their work to a selected audience, among which was Lorenzo Ramaciotti, vice-president design for the entire Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) and Maserati.

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WHAT A VINTAGE FOR DESIGN!

Post your wishes and your opinions, here.

Leonardo Fioravanti (link) -  Marcello Gandini (link) – Giorgetto Giugiaro (link)

Is it just a chance that the three most talented and creative Italian car designers were all born within a period of seven months?

Even more striking is the fact that two of them were born only 19 days apart. Giorgetto Giugiaro and Marcello Gandini were both born in August 1938, in Garessio and Torino, only 80 km apart.

One was named Designer of the Century and induced into the Automotive Hall of Fame, the other is credited with the design of the Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Countach, just to name a couple of the most dramatic sports car ever built.

The third top designer of the same vintage, and born just some 130 km from Torino, is Leonardo Fioravanti, the man who has penned some of the most successful Ferrari among which we shall here name the Ferrari 365 GTB 4 “Daytona” and the Ferrari 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer (BB).

Car design seems to preserve these men and their creativity very well.

No one among them is thinking of retirement and they are all very busy and motivated at creating new car design. They are all having fun with it.

What has shaped their passion for sports car, their creativity, their approach to car design and to life? These are question that might have many different answer? Have you got one?

Would you tell me what you think and see how they are perceived, loved, criticized or appreciated around the world?

To start with, please vote your favourite designer.

[poll=2]

If you like, you can also post the name of the car(s) you love most among those they have designed.

• Leonardo Fioravanti (link)
• Marcello Gandini (link)
• Giorgetto Giugiaro (link)

Giorgetto Giugiaro is simply the most talented, productive and successful car designer of all times. The only one nominated “Designer of the Century” by an international Jury, he is celebrated by the Hall of Fame and has been awarded several Honoris Causa doctorate as an architect. With more than 50 years of very intense work as a car designer he is the president of a company that employs more than 1000 specialists and create cars from a white piece of paper (including the Chinese Brilliance Zhongua) and still enjoy himself at designing cars, as well as any sort of products. In his spares time he love to paint, ride his cross-country bike and crossing the Africa deserts.

About being 70, in a fast interview between two meetings he has answered our direct questions, with a smile. Here is his opening statement.

Mr. Giugiaro, you seem to be positively committed to follow the example of (the world-wide famous painter) Pablo Picasso, who at the age of 90 was still enjoying painting. You are still more than 20 years away from that age and – if we are right – you continue to personally design some of the cars created by Italdesign-Giugiaro. Is it really so? Read the rest of this entry »

 ”Gandini is fantastic. Unbeatable when it comes to creating way-out sportcar with overpowering aggression: some of his coupes seem to bite the ground even when they are standing still. With the Renault Superfive he gave a demonstration of detail work, the refinement of an existing concept. An impeccable job worthy of a miniaturist: the little Renault rings with class”.
This words were written in 1989 and are not from a critic or a friend but from his thoughest rival and competitor: Giorgetto Giugiaro, the most acclaimed car designer in the world for the past two decades. At that time Giugiaro had already seen the Gandini’s Cizeta V16T but not the Lamborghini Diablo yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Meet the man who has designed extraordinary, famous and successful automobiles. From the innovative and trend setting BMC 1800 Berlina Aerodinamica to the Ferrari 288 GTO, from the Ferrari Dino 206 GT to the Lancia Gamma limousine. The Ferrari P5 and P6, the Alfa Romeo 33 Spider Prototipo Speciale and the mythical Ferrari 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer (BB). His name is Lorenzo Fioravanti and his favourite car is one he has not designed but long dreamed of: the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider designed and built by Pininfarina.

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Walter De Silva, not long time ago, said that new car design increasingly tend to become car..caricatures. He was referring to decoration. I share his opinion and I am to an advocate of design simplicity. This clearly explains why I was rather embarrassed the other day, when a Ferrari enthusiast and owner asked my opinion on the new Ferrari California, designed by Pininfarina. Read the rest of this entry »