Auto Design

By Giancarlo Perini. ©

You can’t be mistaken: the show car that Smart is presenting in Geneva with the name of “forspeed” proves that the company’s designers have taken a ride on the roller-coaster and had a lot of fun in creating an EV Roadster so full of curvatures, shapes and colour that in its full-size dimension attract teen-agers with a driving license and, in a smaller scale, would be the dream of their younger brothers and sister under ten. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

The XENATEC Coupe based on the Maybach 57 S will be making its world premiere in the gardens of “La Réserve” Hotel on the banks of Lake Geneva. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

MINI is far from being tired of launching newer and sexier ideas in spectacular show-cars. In Geneva they will we unveiling their shortest and possibly lightest (for the millenium) Mini so far. It will be also the fastest from zero to 100 thanks to its hybrid technology since, according to a company statement “it is designed to allow the integration of a drive system which combines further enhanced sprinting ability with average fuel consumption of just three liters per 100 kilometers (94 mpg imp).” Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

It has taken much longer than usual but eventually Pininfarina has found the top designer that will fill the hole left by Lowie Veermesch, when he resigned in the second half of last year.

The famous Italian design & engineering house has signed Renault’s vice president in charge of Interior Design, Fabio Filippini who is joining the company in Cambiano, Italy, on April 1^st.

This is the first “outsider” who is appointed to lead the famous team of car and product designers at Pininfarina. The appointment marks the return of an Italian designer to the role after Ken Okuyama and Lowie Veermesch.

However, although he was born and educated in Italy, Mr. Filippini, 47, is rather a citizen of the world of car design and despite his last title he has also been working on exterior design and indeed he is credited of the current Renault Megane range design.

He has some 20 years of experience gained around the world and he is married to a Japanese, Mrs. Kayoko.

Before joining Renault in1993 Mr. Filippini had been a young design star at the Japanese DCI (Design Centre International) consultancy in Tokyo. That was his first full time job after graduating in Architecture at the famous Polytechnic University in Milan, between 1989 and 1993.

As a student he worked for Aldo Sessano at his Open Design in Turin and worked on a number of projects for Mitsubishi.

One of his most remarkable projects was the interior design of the stunning 1995 “Renault Initiale” trend setting, top class, limousine.

Mr. Filippini’s work at Pininfarina will be the first in Italy after his graduation. From Tokyo he moved to Renault in Paris and than to Sitges, Spain, where he worked at the VW Group Design Centre between 1997 and the year 2000, when he returned to Renault.

In recent years he has also been in charge of Renault’s Latin America Design centre in Brazil.

By Giancarlo Perini ©

Bertone plans to show two design works on the Jaguar theme at the Geneva Motor Show. In addition to the Jaguar B 99, already unveiled in the past few days by friendly magazines, there will be also a “racing” derivative in GT2 style. Mike Robinson, director of design and brand manager, is indeed putting the final touches to a second show-model that will be on the company stage at the Show. That is the Jaguar B99 GT.

The B99 GT is indeed a design evolution presented as a full scale model. The approach is similar to the one taken in the past by Italdesign when they used the full scale model built to create the show-car to present a additional “design” through upgrading, tuning and graphic work. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

If designing cars is your dream and you have got the talent and all it take to become a professional, you have a unique chance to prove your potential to Walter De Silva, Fabrizio Giugiaro, Alessandro Dambrosio and Filippo Perini, through almost one year of learning process and eventually receive an invitation to be part of the team that will create a new car (or truck) for one of the 11 brands of the VW “Konzern”. Let’s just remind them: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Italdesign-Giugiaro, Lamborghini, Porsche, Seat, Scania, Skoda, VW, VW Nutzfahrzeuge. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

According to well placed sources, on February 21^st, when Dr.-Ing. Norbert Reithofer , CEO of the BMW Group will eventually and officially announce the name of the sub-brand that the German group is setting up for the production and sale of the all-new range of automobiles (designed to specifically meet the expectations of mega cities drivers), the audience will be impressed for the extreme simplicity of the formula and logo.

The sub-brand is simply named “BMW i” (but it could well be iBMW or i-BMW) and reflects the same approach to specialty vehicles the company took when it launched the “BMW M” division dedicated to race-inspired high performance range, back in 1972.

In the past months (actually years) the industry has been wondering and questioning which way BMW would go when marketing their innovative new vehicles and enthusiasts expected that some old brands, such as Isetta, would be resurrected. More recently, after BMW announced that the first vehicles to bow from the “Project-i” will be a full-electric development many sources were ready to bet the sub-brand would start with an “e” for electric(ity).

Late in 2007 BMW put together the Project ‘i’ group in order to develop a “completely new car and mobility concepts for megacities”, according to chairman Norbert Reithofer. The ‘i’ stands for innovation and in the team was given a very open briefing alongside the freedom to act beyond the structure of the BMW organisation to explore different technologies and approaches, including the exploration of battery power.

What the car will look like will become clear in September, when “BMW i” unveils its first “Concept” actually based on the new four-metre long, four-seater, rear-engined, and rear-wheel-drive premium city-car, that is expected to go on sale towards the end of 2013. As one would expect from such an innovative vehicle the design will feature a “surprise”. Whether this will have to do with the door-opening, as I expect, or something else the sources did not want to say.

With an overall length close to 4 metres and because of the package advantages offered by E-propulsion system, the first BMW i will offer the roominess and status of a 3 series within a length some 25 cm shorter than a first generation 1.

The new plug-in electric BMW will be a roomy and comfortable premium car that will be offering the driving pleasure, quality and comfort standards of a 4 seater BMW, which price will reflect the technology value of its content. I would expect the price to be slightly higher than a well equipped 3 series and the weight to be closer to that of the second generation1 series, with the weight of the sophisticated battery pack and its ancillaries compensated by the extensive use of aluminium and carbon fibre for the chassis and bodywork.

By Giancarlo Perini ©

With their Vision Efficient Dynamic unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show and to enter limited production at the end of 2013, BMW designers gave form to a series of innovation focusing on fuel efficiency and reduction of CO2 emissions through a very attractive, lighter and more compact, four-seater, supercar, with high performance hybrid technology. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

The official unveiling is just a week away. It will take place in Milano at the Pirelli Headquarters.

The pictures of the most exclusive among the best performing supercars that more than 1 million Euros (1.35 million dollars) can buy make it clear: this is really the ultimate cars to have or Maharajas and Sultans, but Hollywood producer, pop stars, finance and industrial tycoons, and well established royalties. Read the rest of this entry »

by Giancarlo Perini

Peugeot has been very quick at reconsidering the design direction it took few years ago and just three years after the launch of its first generation 308 is introducing a radically redesigned generation that will soon make its predecessor a mistake to forget overnight. Read the rest of this entry »