Auto Design

Going to an international motor show is like going to the annual market. You meet a lot of friends and people, see many things and you come back home with the head full of information, impressions, news, comments and opinions. So much so that indeed you need a few days to arrange everything in some sort of order so that you get to the essence of the experience. This is all the same and yet all different every time. And I am not just talking of the cars.

As for cars, new cars I mean, I have come home with an incredible load of pictures and information.

I would have to share them all with you the very moment I sat back to my PC last Saturday but this is simply impossible. It takes a lot of time to put a label and classify more than 2000 images.

Now, having done just that I can start sharing with you some of the most significant. Or at least some that I image you want to see as soon as possible.

This is why, at this time I am offering you a series of photo galleries to look at. What you see is a combination of images shot at the Paris “Mondial de l’Automobile” and images provided by the press offices and design studio of the car makers.

I am giving priority to the latter ones, as the most attractive and unique.

Related information and comments will be posted shortly. Click on images below to access their photo gallery.

As expected, BMW  will soon be ready to launch another X-series model. This time, after the king-of-the-hill BMW X6 coupé, the all-new addition to the range taks position in the “compact premium” class. A sort of entry-model, if you can call it so.

As usual BMW is not disappointing and it seem that the new X1 will be the sort of SAV you would expect from the company: consequent with the range and the brand quality. Read the rest of this entry »

 Jerome Gallix resign from Peugeot.

According to an official press release, Jerome Gallix has resigned from his position as head of design of Peugeot Automobiles. He was appointed to the top of Peugeot’s design organisation one year ago, when Gerard Welter who has led the department since the late 70ies retired.  Reportedly Jerome Gallix is leaving the group “to pursue a personal project”, today, September 30 2008.

Actually the PSA Peugeot Citroën Group press-release has been issued to inform that « Jean-Pierre Ploué, Citroën Styling Director since 2000, has been appointed Director of Styling for the entire PSA Peugeot Citroën Group effective October 1. In this capacity, he will lead all of the Peugeot and Citroën styling teams, which have been consolidated at the Group’s Automotive Design Network facility in Vélizy since 2004.»

Ploué, who has successfully led the Citroën styling renaissance over the past eight years, will manage the ADN, a center of automotive creativity with two dedicated Peugeot and Citroën styling teams. This combined Peugeot and Citroën design center provides effective support for the Group’s commitment to strengthening and differentiating the two brands’ styling universes, a process that was initiated by Chairman Christian Streiff as part of the dynamic of the CAP 2010 program.

In his new position, Ploué will report to Grégoire Olivier, Member of theManaging Board and Executive Vice President, Programs.

 ”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 »