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There is something brutal, like the 1989 Alfa Romeo SZ, and something overly theatrical, like the Batman car, about the Acura Advance. This striking quality of the design makes a big impression, but for most it was not a positive impression. The view of most designers we spoke to at the LA show was that it was an unattractive design that lacked sophistication in its theme or resolution. None-the-less there are many interesting design elements within the car and it might be part of a strategy to prepare the market for more aggressive Acura production design in the future...
Advance's core design elements are deep sheer-surfaced extremities with a simple V-shape in plan, deep body side scallop, sharp shoulder crease line that encircles the hood surface which sits recessed within this, and a shield-like grille design. A full depth central vertical rear light, Acura embossed twin door handle (the hard model show car suggested that the rear door would open from a rear hinge) and low set front lamps were also interesting details.
Ultimately this fanciful design seems to be a missed opportunity: it could have proposed a new thematic direction for forthcoming Acuras; instead it lacks any apparent relevance to the brand.
The Step Bus is an unusual concept; it uses the main structure and exterior form of the super small Japanese kei-class market Acty van (which means it is just 1475mm wide and 3395mm long) and has a tiny three cylinder engine mounted below the floor just ahead of the rear axle. Inside the Step Bus uses production seats to provide versatile seating for five and a concept car IP and door inners that move away from its commercial vehicle origins.
Dave Marek, Chief Designer of Honda R&D Americas, described how the concept is an experiment to see if this type of vehicle has a place in the North American market with a target customer, like the Honda Remix concept also debuting, of the 'MP3' generation.
The green gray works well with the clean form of the car that features a single sliding door on each side, a very good wheel to body relationship, a novel floating white plastic element within the grille graphic, tightly executed high quality front and rear lamps, and an overall impressive level of resolution.
In some ways there is a clear rational for this appealing design in the American market, but being 8 inches narrower and 18 inches shorter than a Scion xA suggests to us that it will be too diminutive to be successful.
Audi TT Roadster
The original Audi TT coupe was first shown as a concept car in 1995 which was then followed in 1996 by the TTS, a concept car preview of the cabriolet version, which featured memorable orange-brown leather seats with baseball glove style leather stitching. The production TT convertible that then followed had a productionised version of this chunky stitched leather seats, but otherwise lived slightly in the shadow of its svelte coupe sibling with a roofline that accentuated its short proportions and, roof down, exposed two rather simplistic roll hoops.
The new TT is slightly longer (and visually a lot longer thanks to the lower side feature) than its predecessor which particularly benefits the new cabriolet version debuting in LA. It also has a more sophisticated roll hoop design with aluminium cladding the outer edges of the hoops and a dark grey plastic covering the inner surface.
Car Design News spoke with Stefan Sielaf, Head of Audi Design, on the stand who confirmed that there was no cover for the roof when folded flush into the rear deck (which seemed slightly odd given that there are necessarily large gaps between folded roof and surrounding rear deck, which are unsightly and likely to collect debris) and that the baseball glove themed thick stitching will continue on this new model exclusive to the cabriolet version.
Related Stories:
Audi TT - New York Auto Show 2006
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