Auto Design

From Giancarlo Perini ©

Today Volkswagen has eventually released the first official pictures of its third generation Beetle. The official images show that the grand child has grown up and aims at developing a personality of its own, on line with the tune of the mature-internet generation. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

The 2011 Auto Shanghai motor show, opening in a week time, will not be business as usual. Indeed it will mark a new era of the entire world car industry, the one steered by the Chinese market and industry. China is the biggest car market, and the one that is growing faster worldwide. The leading premium brands are betting on for most of their growth in the decade. Read the rest of this entry »

by Giancarlo Perini (c)

According to unofficial sources, Italdesign is set to unveil two show cars at the forthcoming Geneva Motor Show early next March. They will be the first ones to be designed by Maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro after the company, he established in 1968, has been acquired by the Volkswagen Group, last May.

A glimpse at one of the two “product concepts” is said to be previewed, very discreetly, by the company with the Christmas memento sent to a limited number of friends, clients and journalists. This is indeed the reproduction of a sketch penned by the Maestro that shows the exterior design of an attractive two-doors, four-seater coupé that could well be regarded as the 2011 Scirocco by Giugiaro. The difference here is that the “new coupe” bear the emblem of Seat.

The Spanish brand is currently the weakest member of the VW family and as such the one that needs the greatest and most urgent attention by the Group. It only makes sense that Giugiaro talent and attention goes to Seat.

Some years ago, VW’s supremo Ferdinand Piëch said that Seat’s mission was to challenge and beat Alfa Romeo on its own ground. The mission is far to be accomplished despite its success in the World Touring Car Championship .Now, while Fiat is keeping Volkswagen “on hold” for the acquisition of Alfa Romeo, the German group wants to look again at the potential of the Seat brand and see what can be done, should the Alfa Romeo deal take too long a time. As such it is also a discreet message to Sergio Marchionne.

The second show-car from Giorgetto Giugiaro to be seen in Geneva is rumoured to be a new hatchback that could well be  the “2011 vision of a Golf” by Giugiaro.

I think it is time for Sergio Marchionne to present a gift to Italy, to his shareholders and to himself: sell Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen as soon as possible. At the best possible price, sure but without wasting time.

By selling now SM will avoid the embarrassment of missing to deliver what he has announced: sell half a million Alfa Romeo by 2015. There is no way he can do it, unless he is thinking of a range of Chrysler derivatives that would carry the Alfa Romeo shield but would be rebadged Chrysler. This can work for Lancia. Not for Alfa Romeo. Read the rest of this entry »

Ferdinand Piëch on the Future of Car Design

Giancarlo Perini ©

The other day I was searching a story through my collection of Car Styling and I also noticed an interview with Ferninand Piëch, shortly after the introduction of the new Audi 100, the Car of the Year of the time. I found interesting to read again his words and check his visions with the development of Audi (and the entire Volkswagen group) some 27 years later.

Perhaps you too may like to read them and share your comments with other readers.

Status and Trends of Automotive Design Development.

Q: How would you describe the present status of automotive engineering in general?

A: Automotive engineering is currently in a state of tension between numerous influencing factors, some of them mutually contradictory. Increased awareness of environmental problems is taking effect in the form of statutory limits on exhaust emissions and noise, but is obliging us to design engines with unfavorable fuel-consumption characteristics and to increase body weight unnecessarily. However, rapidly rising fuel prices and the drop in our potential customers’ available incomes on almost all volume markets oblige us to devote top priority in our development work to reducing fuel consumption. All in all, therefore, automotive engineering is striving to achieve the optimum compromise between economical running and long-term durability, with increased safety and environmental acceptability thrown in at the same time. Considerable progress in the field of electronics and in the materials sector has resulted in technical features appearing on production vehicles which would have been considered impossible to achieve only a short time ago. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Volkswagen press office I have just received the following report.

I like the idea of considering “car design” a popular subject but I would have expected more, much more, from an interview to three famous designers of such a high rating.

Fair enough, De Silva gives credit to the designer who actually drove the Golf VI design development under his direction and everybody knows Giugiaro (Giorgetto, not Giorgio as reported) designed the Golf himself. Did Warkuss designed the Golf IV himself or it was one of his designer who did the job? In this case who was it? Doesn’t he deserves due credit?
What is your opinion/reaction? I would really like to know.

Summit Meeting of the Designers:

Golf I bears the signature of Giorgio Giugiaro

Golf IV and V evolved under the aegis of Hartmut Warkuß

Golf VI and the future of the Golf are shaped by Silva

Wolfsburg, 21 October 2010 – These three men have had a decisive influence on automotive history: Giorgio Giugiaro, Hartmut Warkuß and Walter de Silva. Designers of world renown. Each of them has designed icons that will stand the test of time. One thing unites these men: the Golf. Because the Golf generations that were most important in terms of style—I, IV and VI—evolved under their aegis. Now the three top designers got together in a kind of summit meeting of design to analyse the “Golf” phenomenon.

Giorgio Giugiaro (72), who was head of Italdesign and designed the first Golf generation (debut in 1974), casts a glance back on the design of the Golf: “From my vantage point back then, it was not difficult to make the transition from the Beetle to a new vehicle type.” The fact that Giugiaro was always true to his own rules might have had something to do with that. Giugiaro: “When it comes to criteria for fine design, the proportions top the list. It is always somewhat of a mathematical game.” And his ideas were a winner: The proportions of the Golf I were right; 6.78 million units of the first generation were sold up till 1983.

Just how much the head of Italdesign, a company belonging to Volkswagen AG since 2010, influenced the “Golf” product brand is emphasized by Hartmut Warkuß (70). The ardent amateur pilot was chief designer of Volkswagen AG until his retirement in 2003; Hartmut Warkuß and his team created the Golf of the fourth and fifth generation. Warkuß: “We began with the Golf IV in 1993. I asked myself at the time how Giorgio Giugiaro would design it.” What a compliment.

Warkuß: “And so we created a timeless form again and intensified the character of the Golf through the distinctive C-pillars, among other things.” What was of overriding importance to Hartmut Warkuß: “Design has to be balanced. Its proportions have to be right. It has to suit the time in which such a design is to be valid.” For many experts, the Golf IV, which has been built 4.3 million times, is already today a classic of tomorrow.

Walter de Silva (59) is also one of these experts. He has been Head of Volkswagen Group Design since 2007. “Messrs. Giugiaro and Warkuß have given the fundamental design to the Golf as a Volkswagen.” With a view to the Golf VI, yet also to future generations, he outlines why he has preserved these genes and will continue to perpetuate them:

“Basically, Giorgio Giugiaro and Hartmut Warkuß have written the score, a beautiful piece of music. And with my team, with Klaus Bischoff—Head of Design for the Volkswagen brand—and naturally all the others, we try to give a proper interpretation of this music. The basic score of the ‛Golf music’ has been written. What we’re carrying forward here is a further development.”

The sixth generation of the Golf shows what potential this music still has. De Silva himself is living in the future; he is already on the road driving the next Golf in his thoughts. And that Golf will—some day—follow the score defined by Giugiaro and yet remain one-of-a-kind. This is part of the secret of success of the Volkswagen brand and the “Golf” phenomenon alike. Walter de Silva: “Volkswagen will remain unique in the future and therefore universal. Constant changes make for unreliability for customers.” The latest figures prove him right: During the first eight months of this year alone, Volkswagen was able to convince around 250,000 more customers to buy a car bearing the label of Volkswagen, in a year-on-year comparison with the previous period. People seem to have been entranced by the music on a lasting basis.

The auto motor und sport trade journal has just published a discussion between the designers Giorgio Giugiaro, Hartmut Warkuß and Walter de Silva about the Golf—recorded within the framework of the Schloss Bensberg Classics 2010.

Can it just be a meaningless coincidence than 50% of the winners of the Car of the Century awards presented to top personalities of the Twentieth Century have been friends for almost 40 years and although both over 70, have a lot to share under the roof of Italdesign-Giugiaro?

Late in 1999, a jury of 132 professional automotive journalists from 33 different countries, under the presidency of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, awarded the title of Car of the Century’s to Ford’s T Model and the same awards to four top personalities in the car industry through the past century.

Their choice made up for a very impressive panel: Giorgetto Giugiaro was elected Car Designer of the Century, Ferdinand Porsche, Car Engineer of the Century, Henry Ford I Entrepreneur of the Century and Ferdinand Piëch Car Executive of the Century. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

PEUGEOT RCZ

Back from holidays, I am facing great difficulties sitting back to my desk and go through the news to report, possibly in a sensible order. The sun is hot, the wind is fresh,  the sky is blue, the air is clean. Outside. What am I doing in my hole with a keypad and a monitor challenging me?

In addition, there is too much to report but nothing new to make “the news”. It is business as usual. Read the rest of this entry »