Now that the Geneva Auto Show is here and we’ve seen the new designs, it’s time to step back and think about design for a few minutes, in light of some of the concepts that have been released, and, more importantly, what people are saying about these designs.
It has become amazing how some car designs take on a life of their own without any reference point to the actual design of the car. I am going to focus on a few cars that really summarize a lot about design aesthetics and the hype that surrounds new designs which can change people's perception about a car. I have already written an entire post about the Ferrari FF, so no need to review, except to say that when I saw the car live at Geneva there was no question that this is not only an extraordinarily beautiful Ferrari, but also a very important car for the marquee, because it really stretches their design aesthetic, allows them to provide a car that really does seat four people+luggage in a way that many of their other GTs have not, and provides a unique niche, not only in terms of marketing, but, in terms of Ferrari design. After all, as I discussed in my post, so many car makers have produced shooting brake concept cars, but very few have ever gone into production, so Bravo Ferrari! The Lamborghini Aventador. I am not normally a fan of Lambos, but I do like this new one, and I like its design ethic because it seems to be essentially a refining of the Murcielago/Gallardo primary theme, where earlier Lambos have attempted to take things over the top merely for the sake of outrageousness. Now, it is clear that under Lamborghini's previous design director, Luc Donckerwolke their cars began to get more integrated in terms of design, but the Aventador seems to summarize all that is special about recent Lamborghini design, and yet refined to another level. It is certainly not a groundbreaking car in any way, but it is a nice re-definition of the basic Lamborghini design ethic at this point.
I also want to give a shout out to the Pagani Huayra, the new exotic super car from Italian maker Horatio Pagani. Whereas the Zonda was a horrible looking car by any stretch of the imagination, the Huayra actually begins to look like (a) a car, and (b) somewhat sexy. Therefore, it deserves a positive mention in this morning's column.
This brings us to the question of why some people can't see what is going on with a particular design. To some degree, the mechanical specification and presentation of an automobile, and in other cases simply the hype about a car, prevents people from objectively evaluating its design. There is no greater example of this, of course, than the McLaren MP4-12C. This car, of course came out before Geneva and has already been reviewed a number of times. I have not driven the MP4-12C, but what is obvious about the car (even the biased and jingoistic British journalists have acknowledged this) is that for all of its technical brilliance and superiority, which it absolutely has to the last degree --- it is not a great looking car. Sorry McLaren. You produced a car that is tremendously competent and brilliantly engineered, and therefore, by all accounts truly exciting to drive, but it is a car whose looks are so out of touch with its mechanical brilliance that it is almost funny. On the exterior, the McLaren looks essentially like a cross between an enlarged Lotus Elise and the Lamborghini Cala concept car that Guigiaro designed some years ago. It really is a very boring, unexciting, uninspiring design. You want proof--just look at the Jaguar XC-75, a design with astonishing beauty and brilliance. Similar for the interior, where although McLaren, to its credit, went for a minimalist approach, they ended up with something that just didn't excite the senses when you get into the car. As I said, if even the Brits are saying this, there must be something to it, and hopefully McLaren will get it right the next time around.
Finally, my last design comment, and one that is most disappointing to write, is about the Alfa 4C, introduced at Geneva. Everyone was hoping that this car would be the spectacular little brother to the Alfa 8C, which was a hugely expensive, limited run, supercar introduced a couple years back, but in fact the Alfa 4C is a horrible mish-mash, evocative of some of the worst things Alfa has ever done. It is funny, because the teaser sketches of this car showed a brilliant, beautiful, clean and simple GT that looked like it would absolutely enthrall the senses, and what we ended up with was a mash-up of a Lotus Elise and a Porsche Cayman that ended up looking neither as integrated or organic as either of those original shapes, and one that has so much unnecessary complication and lack of fluidity and design coherence that it’s truly sad.
Now, Alfa has had a history of designing both brilliant and beautiful cars and truly ugly ones, and unfortunately this falls in the last category. It is ironic, because Alfa's last show car, the Nuevo Duetto Spider, which was just presented last year, was a spectacularly beautiful design. So it just goes to show you, it doesn't matter what country the car is produced in and who does the design; sometimes they’re inspired and sometimes they get it so wrong.
So why does it all matter? Well, it matters because the cars I discussed today, the Lambo, the Ferrari, the Alfa, the Pagani and the McLaren, are all supposed to stir vivid emotionality. They are supposed to make one feel a sense of pleasure, longing and sensual confirmation when you look at the car and sit in it that’s specifically driven by design. It is then enhanced and validated through the mechanical experience of driving the car, but the design itself must take you and grab you in a way that thousands of very good but mundane cars in this world do not. And that is where a car like the Ferrari FF is such a tremendous success. It grabs you immediately. Its impact is great emotionally. You want to sit in it, and when you do sit in it and recognize what a beautiful design it is, you are only more moved and thrilled at the expectation of driving it, whereas the McLaren simply leaves you limp, and the Alfa just leaves you shaking your head and laughing and hoping they do a better job next time out.
