The Curious FellowJJs on about design

Today is the day that Marty McFly visited in the future!

This is so cool but also makes me feel really old. I remember watching this and thinking that 2010 seemed impossibly far away. So where the hell are the hoverboards and auto-lace-up nikes?

Addendum: There’s still time!

“On October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett Brown arrives from the future and tells Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker that he needs their help to save their kids in the future. They depart in the flying DeLorean time machine as Biff Tannen accidentally witnesses the departure. They arrive on October 21, 2015, where Doc electronically hypnotizes Jennifer to sleep and leaves her unconscious in an alley to keep her away from his plan.”

The screenshot of the time machine’s dashboard is a fake and it appears to have tricked loads of people, including me. The good news is, for the enterprising among us, there’s still time to invent the hoverboard etc.

Norman E. Timbs designed the superb, extravagant curves of the Buick Streamliner in 1949. 60 years later they have resurfaced thanks to David Cruise.

Quirky concept for  Alfa Romeo by Bertone from the Geneva Motor Show. The broken shard detailing on the rear end and the wheels is superb. However the doors may be problematic if you have a garage with a low ceiling.

If you like it, there are more pictures here.

I am sad to say that our lovely A2 is leaving us. I thought I’d write a little eulogy to this stunning modern day design icon in its memory.

Four things I love about the A2:

1. The styling

The A2 was a surprise when it debuted only two years after the original Al₂ study. Many initial reviews commented on the design. Autocar’s initial drive verdict: “The best thing about the A2 is that it isn’t merely a design exercise. Yes, it’s a great car to look at, sit in and touch, but it’s also a riot to drive”.

The A2 won Audi’s first Design Oscar, germany’s most prestigious design award. It’s designer Luc Donckerwolke is now one of the world’s most respected car designers. After breaking the mould with the A2, he went on to head up the design team at Lamborghini and design both of their recent stunning models; the Murceliago and Gallardo.

2. The technology

The overriding theme in the design and engineering of the A2 was summarized by the then Audi UK product manager in an interview after the car won a design award in 2001 as “create a small Audi, not a cheap Audi”, and the creative brief is said to have been “Transport four people from Stuttgart to Milan on a single tank of petrol”.

The A2 is built using considerable aluminium and aluminium alloy content, providing significant weight and fuel efficiency advantage over similar sized cars. This helps the car to be significantly more economical than vehicles using traditional steel monocoques. As one of the first car ever to be designed as an aluminium car the A2 can be considered a trailblazer for the many recent aluminium-based vehicles, such as the second-generation Audi A8 (D3) and Audi TT, and the X350 Jaguar XJ and 2006 Jaguar XK.

3. The Interior

The A2 has a huge interior space for the exterior dimensions, including a boot, at 390 litres (13.8 cu ft) with the rear seats in place; they can be folded or even completely removed to create a truly cavernous load space. This is significantly larger than the luggage space of the next model in Audi’s range, the Audi A3. The boot also has a really clever double (false) floor where items can be hidden from thieves.

Another neat feature, which is amazingly handy, is that the headrests also do not need to be removed from the rear seats when they are folded. Each seat even has it’s own carrying handle for when it has been removed – now that’s attention to detail!

4. The service hatch

The front of the car included an unusual but brilliant design feature called the “Serviceklappe” in German — this translates to “service hatch”. Behind it are the filling points for oil and screen wash fluid, and the dipstick. Thanks to these features, in the daily use of the car the bonnet does not need to be raised so you don’t need to root around in the dirty engine bay when refilling any of the fluids - superb!

That’s all folks!

So, there you go. It’s a deserved design icon brimming with detailing that has delighted me ever since we got the car. It’ll be sorely missed but we hope it’ll go to a good home!

The Lamborghini Ankonian design study consists of a slimmer body style with a mid-engine mount and sharp angles. Special OLEDs are embedded between surfaces to serve as headlights. The name for the Ankonian comes from a bull famous for its black hair.

Also check out this Hybrid Lamborghini concept – The Madura

This is genuinely a working wooden Vespa Scooter, and it is stunning. Period.

See more here

 This is Mabel. A sad old saggy bug that was the first four wheels I owned. We learned to drive together – her graunching and me smashing her into the back wall of the garage and scraping her down the side of the house.

We travelled up and down the country many times over the years. There’s lots of stories which I shall regail you with in the future dear reader.

About six years ago I thought that I should put away childish things like cute but slightly noisy and cold little cars. And duly laid her to rest on a small island off the east coast of Scotland.

Maybe it’s the circular nature of life, maybe it’s the beginnings of a mid-life crisis but I last weekend I enlisted a couple of friends to help rescue the old dear.

I didn’t expect there to be much left of her when we revisited the small, damp island. But there she was, peeking out from under the vegetation.

mint!

There are more pictures and stories to follow – the jist of the thing is that I am now committed to rescuing little old Mabel and getting her back to being the curvy lovely she once was.

Meet the Goddess. Like a real Goddess she does what she wants to do. Like a real Goddess sometimes she’s a goer and sometimes she site demurely in the driveway. Like a Goddess she sometimes rises at the front first and sometimes the back comes up first. Whatever she’s doing she’s jaw droppingly gorgeous to me.

In my mind Lamborghini has always translated as ‘maker of the most ludicrously outrageous cars’. The fact that recently they’ve been bought by Audi, on top of a bit of a scaredy survival instinct has softened the cars into being beautiful but not the kind of thing that kicks your eyes in the balls. That’s changed. They’ve obvious hired Batman as their chief designer. More of this type of craziness please; I can’t afford it, but I’m definitely going down to Athena to by a poster for my bedroom wall.

More pictures