Auto Design » Lamborghini

MY 2010 PARIS MOTOR SHOW

Giancarlo Perini — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:48:16 +0000

by Giancarlo Perini (c)

You can look back at the Paris Motor Show, the latest top-ranking of the season from many different perspectives: business as usual or new perspective, sexy style or strict functionality, economic status or talks between car-makers to discuss new alliance and even a show within the show. Indeed this is what tiny British carmaker Lotus has done in Paris. By presenting as many as 5 new concept-cars and mock-ups (Elise, Elan and Esprit, Elite and Eterne) the company has attracted a lot of attention from the media and caused a series of serious of questions now waiting for an answer.

Indeed Lotus new leaders (led by past Ferrari managers) is trying to re-establish the company as a new competitor to Ferrari: their head of design, Donato Cocco, went no-stop from Maranello to Hethel (home of Lotus headquarters). The look of the new Lotus is quite sexy and really fast. Trouble is that they are hardly “new” cars. It couldn’t be otherwise: considering the extension of similarities with existing Ferrari. But what is most amazing (and confusing) is the offer of bigger V8 (Toyota) engines with too many horse power at a time when the trend is going in the different direction, toward downsizing. They are just too heavy to deserve the Lotus badge. This and the excess of different cars aiming at the same market produce a clear perception that the company strategy and efforts are aiming at capturing investors rather the car buyers. I will certainly be not one of them. I cannot see how they can go from 2 to 10 thousand sales per year within the next 5 to 10 years. I cannot offer any of my own pictures: access to their exhibition was managed as a popular disco with people (professional and not having to queue to be let in, simply ridicolous).

Back to the real show, I would leave the talks among top executives of merge, alliance or sale to the financial newspapers, but simply note that in this area it was the perspective sale of Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen that was the most controversial, with Fiat’s C.e.o. saying “let them wait” and those a VW commenting “It is just a matter of time”. Everyone would love to get Alfa Romeo and Fiat has more words than money to spend on its revival.

As expected the main theme (and obsession) of the show was the electric-car (and mopeds) of the near, or far, future, but the more beautiful show-cars got more attention for their style, as we shall see in a moment.

On the regular production cars front, the newcomers to mention bear the name of the Mercedes-Benz CLS, the fore-runner of the “sleek four door coupé” architecture is now at its second generation and comes with a style that cannot go unnoticed for its strong character and (following the BMW school of design) sharp lines as well for the news that it will also come with s compact 4 cylinder 2.2 litre diesel engine pumping as much as 500 Nm of torque and 150 kW power.

Next is the New Audi A7 which goes on sale in November but has already been seen and driven before the show. The third “premium” brand presented in Paris the new BMW X3 cross-over that is bigger and better than its predecessor and is no longer produced in Austria by Magna Steyr but in Spartanburg (U.S.A.) by BMW themselves. They also unveiled the look of the forthcoming BMW 6 Series coupé as a very promising “concept”.

In the ultra-luxury category it is Bentley which won the greatest acclaim with their new Continental GT Coupé, also with stronger character lines, especially in the rear and s V8 replacing the V12 to save up to 40% emissions. Ferrari, on their side, launched a limited edition (80 units only, all sold) of its California in roadster style, called SA Aperta where S stands for Sergio and A for Andrea Pininfarina, whereas Aperta is Italian for open (roof).

Hyundai and Kia keep going strong and have introduced a range of new cars due to go on sale in the next months: the Hyundai ix20 minivan (sister of the Kia Venga, both for the small size segment), the new Genesis Coupé now more powerful with a 3.8 litre, 303 HP V6 or a 2.0 litre 210, four-in-line engine. In addition, Hyundai also presented the Genesis sedan and the Equus flagship with the aim of monitoring the public’s reaction. Kia, on its turn, introduced in Europe the successor to the Magentis up-scale sedan. All confirmed the steady improvement of the Korean car industry leaders.

Now under Indian (Tata) ownership Land Rover seems to enjoy a new life. In Paris the company is showing to the public at large its new Range Rover Evoque in a brilliant move that combines marketing, branding and design. Indeed the Evoque is in essence a Land Rover Freelander, redesigned and re-engineering (shorter but wider) to drive on front wheels only (first time ever in a Land Rover, what a shame!) as well as 4×4 (with bigger engines) and styled as a trendy (although rather impractical) 2 door SUV Coupé. It clearly aims at attracting fashion victims driving in metropolitan areas. Soon a 4-door version will be unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show next month (November). The Range Rover Evoque will probably be a success among emotional and irrational driven buyers, quite the opposite of those who will continue to make the redesigned Volkswagen Passat, the best selling car in the European upper-medium class.

The new VW Passat available as a sedan and wagon is the perfect classic, rational and quality product for the conservative customers. Its style combine the new VW look of recent Golf and Polo with a body that strongly recalls Mercedes-Benz of two or three decades ago. That style is an evergreen and VW is quite right in taking this direction now that Mercedes has left that market to other makers. Classic in style, the Passats are very modern in technology and sophisticated in equipment and option.

Volvo, on the contrary, is moving fast into a more dynamic and performance oriented territory. Its new V60 is a coupé-like compact wagon with a strong image designed to appeal to safety-conscious drivers who also favour a modern and trendy look.

This was not all, because the French industry made sure to have new proposals for their own motor show, even though they did not impress but for the new Peugeot 508 sedan which elegant and classic style takes back Peugeot to good design. Also noteworthy from Peugeot is their 3008 Hybrid 4, the first to match a diesel engine with electric traction (on real wheels thus delivering part-time 4×4 transmission).

Citroen’s new C4 is different from the generation it replaces but it is hardly better, despite a series of improvement under the bonnet and for the quality of materials inside the passenger cabin. Its design is absolutely conservative and rather irrelevant. Even the “premium” derivative the DS4 is a disappointment after the very cute and successful DS3.

Last but not least is Renault. This company focused its effort on electric vehicles and a stunning show-car, leaving to their Korean partner, Samsung, to deliver the Latitude, another unlikely attempt (after the Vel Satis) to win European buyers to a premium car with the Renault trade mark. Clearly a no-investments, no-risks, option that might make some sense at this time.

Renault showed a completely different face with its stunning show-car; and it is with its DeZir that we now enter into the “Concept, dream and show” cars territory.

Once again, the name carry the message: the capital Z is the symbol for zero emission performance granted by a 109 kW electric motor propelling the 830 kg Kevlar intense, two-seater coupé, with symmetric door and bio-design look. DeZir is an artificial name that has no meaning but its pronunciation in French sounds like “desir”, French for “desire”. This is the first car designed under the new leadership of Laurens van den Acker to be seen by the public at large and certainly marks a departure from recent design works by Renault.

Although very interesting DeZir was not my favourite design at the show. In my opinion the “dream car” that deserves the title of “Star of the Show” is the Jaguar C-X75. Not only its architecture and style achieve a beautiful balance in volumes, shapes and graphic but the proposed powertrain and traction system (now under feasibility study in view of a limited production, not yet decided) grants this powerful supercar a clear eco-friendly image by combining four electric motors (one per wheel) with twin-turbine Hybrid (see dedicated post for more).

My choice of the “Top Star” has not been easy because there were a few more very attractive show-cars that deserved the honour of a bright star: the Audi e-tron Spyder (the electric open-air sport car for the purists),

Lamborghini “Sesto Elemento” (the technology show-case of future supercars), Sear IBe (the affordable 2+2 coupé for the young and green generation) and the KIA POP (the theoretical and futuristic three-seats, electric drive, alternative to the Toyota IQ city car).

There were other interesting concept cars on display, such as the Audi Quattro Concept, Citroen Lacoste, Nissan Townpod, Peugeot HR1 and EX 1; and the Renault Zoe but they are not within my top 5 favourite from Paris.

Yet, they – but the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento – clearly confirm the trend emerged in recent times: the car of the future is going to be a Hybrid and than (or) an Electric car. Well, at least a good part of them because for quite some time the internal combustion engine will continue to live and prosper all over the world.

Lamborghini might eventually offer also an hybrid alternative to their V10 and V12 engines but for the time being they are working to dramatically cut fuel emission (hence consumption) by dramatically cut the weight of their car through extensive use of carbon fibre.

Their Sesto Elemento (Italian for Sixth Element) introduces the use of avionic “forged carbon” technology that allow to form a new panel of any dimension in six minutes versus the six hours requested so far by conventional carbon fibre cooking oven. Lighter cars should positively be the new frontier but they cost a lot of money and the industry prefers to look elsewhere. As long as they can afford it.

VOLKSWAGEN INVEST INTO ITALDESIGN-GIUGIARO. PART 2 – A COMMENTARY.

Giancarlo Perini — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:01:38 +0000

A commentary.

In the mid-sixties, the Milanese Inter foot-club was dominating the scene in Europe, under the leadership of coach Helenio Herrera and the ownership of Angelo Moratti. Herrera had a lot of talent and a simple, pragmatic strategy: buy all the best players, even if he could not use all of them.

By doing so, he was making sure they would not play against his team. Mr. Moratti was so committed and rich enough to afford the best players for his Inter.

Today, the VW Group is rich enough (and so busy playing in many “championships” around the world, be it Brazil, China, the United States besides Europe and more sub-continents to come) that they can take full advantage of the huge design and engineering potential of Italdesign-Giugiaro.

By taking control of the High Performance design and engineering organisation, they clearly cut-off a source of successful (hence dangerous) contributions for their competitors.

They obviously realise that Italdesign-Giugiaro has greatly helped the re-vitalisation of VW when Giugiaro designed (at the request of Kurt Lotz , who scouted him at the 1969 Turin Motor Show) the Golf which literally turned around VW at their most critical time ever, after rushing the design of the first Passat and Scirocco.

But Italdesign-Giugiaro have been long time, and strategic, partners of some of the most successful brands around the world such as Toyota, Hyundai, and now the Chinese (FAW, Brilliance, Cherry and more) and Malaysian Proton. Just to name a few.

The story with Fiat is completely different. A story that might be worth re-visiting one of these days.

Now one may question who is going to design the revolutionary Fiat Uno and Panda, or the ipersuccessful Punto, of the future. Just to mention a few. Yet one should not forget the early Croma and Lancia Thema, very successful to Fiat’s standards.

With Lamborghini and Bentley, the VW board has experienced how important it is to maintain the original character and flair of each brand and with Italian born and Turin trained Walter De’ Silva in charge of Italdesign-Giugiaro, VW has the principles, the talent and the expertise to ensure Italdesign-Giugiaro will continue to be the “Italian & Independent” design and engineering think thank dedicated to the 13 brands of the Group (add the MAN and SAAB truck to the 11 passenger car and commercial vehicle brands).

My opinion is that the short and medium term Italdesign-Giugiaro will flourish and grow with success and will deliver outstanding ideas to all of us. (Also see next part: Watch out for those Two”).

On the other side, by accepting VW as their majority partners, Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro have produced another excellent piece of rational and excellent design: they have ensured their company, and their 800 plus work-force, a safe future at a time when no business is stable as it used to be. A future that is no longer dependent on the health and commitment of its remaining founding partner (although Giorgetto is enjoying excellent health and is more committed than ever, as the Proton E-Mas proves) and of his son Fabrizio.

They both are not going to quit the business any time soon to enjoy the money and their dividends. Fabrizio is indeed moving into the much wider world of the VW Group.

At 45 he has some 30 years of experience in the business, is familiar with the entire design and industry community world-wide and, with his father, is the professional who has seen and shared the development of most projects and different brands, world-wide, that I can think of.

As for Giorgetto Giugiaro, I see him working with a very small team to projects of his own. He can design a new car every-week but his dream has always been to design and develop a couple of new and innovative cars per year.

This is why I expect him (and Ferdinand Piëch) to deliver some outstanding design and technology innovations in the next months and years to come.

Last but not least, both the new role of VW at Italdesign and the need for their competitors to buy more Italian design and engineering expertise and support, will be very beneficial to the design community in and around Turin.

ELECTRIC LAMBORGHINI AS HOMAGE TO COUNTACH.

Giancarlo Perini — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:35:36 +0000

From Brazil, talented illustrator Flavio Adriani has sent me this set of images he has created for his own pleasure as homage to the Lamborghini Countach. “This Lamborghini designed by the great Marcello Gandini always fascinated me since I was a child”.

Flavio stresses that he “an architectural illustrator and am not car designer”.

This does not mean he Is not entitled to image how the Lamborghini could look like if it had to be designed today as an Electric Vehicle and share his works with out community.

Would his Countach 3D be labelled retro-design? May be. So what?

EVERYTHING (ALMOST) YOU WANT TO SEE OF THE 2009 CONCORSO D’ELEGANZA DI VILLA D’ESTE.

Giancarlo Perini — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:48:48 +0000

The Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este this years has been as good as the weather. That is to say that half of it was very good, with peaks of excellence, and the remaining half was bad, raining and boring, with touches of ugliness.

By the end of the elegant week-end on the Lake of Como, one would say it was not one the best edition ever but still offered enough interesting cars to look at, people to greet and talk to, and subjects to discuss.

As such it was one not to be missed. Those who did not attend it missed the extremely rare chance of hearing the sibilo and smelling the pollution of its turbine engine, not to mention seeing this extraordinary visualisation of the dreams about the cars of the future they were dreaming in the fifties and sixties.

Two other rare visions were the 1964 Prince Skyline Sport and the BMW GINA. The Prince is one of the many cars styled by the great Giovanni Michelotti and a two door luxury car called coupé built by coachbuilder Allemano.

BMW Gina is too famous to need further description. What was new is the fact that we saw it outdoor and in motion.

There were also irrelevant cars that I shall leave to you to detect identify and some lovely example of romantic and passionate design of the past, beatiful examples of simple and yet outstanding design that will also speak of natural elegance in contrast with cars (of past and today) that are simply overdone.

I have many stories to tell from the past week-end to share with you: about the Design Talk which failed to give a convincing and to the point answer to the question if “Modesty is the new Luxury” simply because modesty is an attitudine and luxury is a rather undefined opinion.

An interesting exhibition of wind cheating and record breaking “streamlined” cars of past times. The story of several concept cars, with Mindset being one of the most controversial and interesting. Unfortuately a dear friend of our family has passed away today and my wife and I have to fly to Torino for the last farewell. This means that I will not be back to my desk for few days and fast enough withmy reports. In the meantime I can offer you a preview of many pictures I produced and collected for you.

To see them click on the images for the related photo galleries. (work in progress)

Lamborghini Murciélago LP 650-4 Roadster. The ultimate.

Giancarlo Perini — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:01:21 +0000

Lamborghini has announced its ultimate roadster. The stunning Murciélago LP 650-4 Roadster that the company will produce in a limited series

The latest development of the Murciélago Roadster comes with a newly 6.5 litre V12 engine that delivers 478 kW of power (650 HP) to the permanent four-wheel drive transmission. In combination with 660 Nm of torque this translated into a 0-100km/h (0-62mph) in 3.4 seconds performance with the top speed suggested to be around 330 Km/h (205mph).

The special edition model will be produced in a limited volume (50 units only), with a Grigio Telesto exterior that combines grey bodywork with a special bright orange Arancio LP 650-4 featured on the front spoiler and sills. The LP 650-4 logo applied to the car’s exterior is recognition of the car’s increased power. The car also features orange brake calipers and a transparent V12-engine cover, which shows off the V12 engine behind the driver.

Interior features echo the car’s striking grey-and-orange exterior. Besides the orange touches, there is an asymmetric dash design, with black Alcantara Nera on the driver’s side, including door panel and central tunnel, and black leather Nero Perseus on the passenger’s side.

Lamborghini likes to stress that the increased power of the Murciélago engine, from 640 to 650 hp, will be unique to the Murciélago LP 650-4 Roadster: it demonstrates even further the developments that Lamborghini is able to offer from a current engine, and creates the exclusive characteristic of the Murciélago LP 650-4 Roadster.

JASON CASTRIOTA AND STILE BERTONE SUPPORT “TEASER ON THE WEB” SITE.

Giancarlo Perini — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:55:48 +0000

The all-new website http://www.insideprojectm.com/ is proposing today to “be a part of the top secret world of car design with Jason Castriota” by joining what it is called “Project M” (for Marie Jeanne Bertone?). However, at least at this time, there is not much about the project itself but a short video summing up the history of Nuccio Bertone and the independent design company he founded under the name of Stile Bertone.

The first comment from a “navigator” identified by a yellow Miura and by the name “dogeared” was: “The video was pretty good a bit fancy pants for my taste but I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes.”

“A new era is dawning at Stile Bertone, with a new Maestro at its design helm: Jason Castriota, the New York-born Italian designer of some of the most talked-about supercars in history. Stay tuned each week for more behind-the-scenes details on Jason’s latest project.”

This suggests that the progress of the project (likely the one-off supercar being completed for the Shanghai Motor Show) will be documented on a weekly base. It would take a lot of time to see Castriota’s first design for a carmaker and due for regular production, not to mention the permissions.

The website is not specific about the project itself, but some images show a body in white being moved inside the Stile Bertone premises. What make will it be is not for the public hears yet but the list of alternatives proposed by one of the first two polls listed, suggests it will be one of the following brands: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Corvette, Porsche, Aston Martin, Nissan. This is not in alphabetical order and it is not by chance. At this time I would bar the first and the last one plus the Maserati and restrict my list of options to Lamborghini, Corvette, Porsche, Aston Martin.