Fiat Bravo

The big story here is the speed at which this car was developed. According to chief designer Frank Stephenson, a mere 17.5 months elapsed from first sketches in April 2005 to the production start late last year. In essence, it is a hastily reskinned Stilo that's been given a much more sophisticated and flowing style, following the theme set by the highly successful Grande Punto. It's fascinating to note that there's a real pattern here with Fiat's mid-size cars: from the boxy Fiat 128 in 1969, to the rounded and radical Ritmo in 1979, then the boxy and rational Tipo to the rounded Bravo/Brava pair of 1995. Then there was the boxy Germanic-style Stilo and now this, a more emotional and flowing style again.

Given the lack of 'soak time', the result is very successful and the new Bravo was notable here in Geneva for the huge amount of interest it was generating. The front face is less obviously Maserati-inspired than the Grande Punto, with a big new Fiat emblem, a sharper headlamp outline and a more linear lower mask but it's clearly more Latin in spirit than the previous Stilo model and disguises its long front overhang effectively. The rear end has overtones of the old Bravo 3D of twelve years ago but this helps to give it a cultural anchor that sets it apart from its main rivals in Europe - the Megane, Astra and Focus. Like the Grande Punto, the tailgate is very clean, with the licence plate and fog lamps dropped down into a recess below the bumper.

The interior impresses, with its driver-focused IP, use of sporty materials and large chunky controls with very positive actions. The instruments are housed in two deep cowls, not unlike an Alfa Romeo, and there's a good level of feature content here too, such as an air vent for rear passengers and big color screen for the Blue&Me NAVI system with Bluetooth and voice control.
    
Design Development story coming soon...
 

KTM X-Bow

Three years ago design consultancy Kiska was tasked by the motorcycle brand KTM with developing concepts for a future ATV (All Terrain Vehicle - or 'Quad').  In the process of doing this they explored the idea of a more road-going ATV which then gave birth to a project that we see in its final form for the first time now in Geneva.

The X-Bow is an uncharacteristically unique and well resolved minimalist two seat, mid-engined roadster with a carbon fiber monocoque body. In essence it is a four wheeled motorbike - a vehicle conceived to deliver as much motorbike riding thrill for people who can not or will not ride a motorbike.

Its form stems from the central carbon fiber tub that is reminiscent of a motorcycle fuel tank in its plan shape. Dramatic orange floating panels sit over this black structure like fairings on a motorbike, whilst elements such as the lights, wheels and exhaust are completely separate - just as they are also on motorbikes.

The X-Bow has the footprint of an Elise and weighs 700kg which is surprisingly high given that the similarly naked Aerial Atom weights just 456kg and an Elise (which has a windscreen, side windows, heater etc) is 710kg.

Speaking with Kiska CEO Gerald Kiska and KTM CEO Stefan Peirer, Car Design News learnt that the X-Bow will go into production later this year with 100 units initially being produced before series production begins in 2008 at the rate of 300 cars per annum. At a target price of 45,000 Euros, KTM should sell every car it can make - if it has the performance and handling of the benchmark minimalist track day cars from the UK.

At Geneva this was by far the most innovative new production car design. The big question is why Honda, Suzuki and even Kawasaki and Yamaha have never done such a car?

Honda Small Hybrid Sports concept

Honda are using the Geneva Show to showcase their ideas on environment and ecology, hence the trio of cars shown: the new F1 car, the FCX hybrid concept from Tokyo Show and the new SHS concept. The Small Hybrid Sports was developed in Honda's Offenbach studio in Germany and, unusually, was designed largely by the studio manager Mr Akio Fumiiri. Talking to Car Design News, he explained the concept thinking behind the design. "The idea was to combine sports car styling but with a high aerodynamic content to give a new language for a hybrid. The aerodynamics are there firstly to aid the fun-to-drive aspect and secondly for fuel economy. In a way, it's the opposite approach from the Insight."

The idea is that the forms themselves are a combination of opposites, to express the hybrid nature more literally. Walking around the car one sees examples of this thinking: the front face takes its inspiration from the Civic visor theme combined with the nose from a F1 racecar. The shoulder line runs from sharp to soft back to sharp again and surfaces run from lightly convex to concave in what Fumiiri terms 'natural sharpness'. Likewise, the wheelarches are sharp-edged at the front, softly radiused towards the rear and the A-pillar runs contrary to classical rules, being thin at the base and thicker towards the roof. The wheels are interesting, not only because they are over-large in side view yet only 165 section in width, but check out the combination of rubber and alloy around the rim that blurs the boundary between tyre and wheel. "It's a true hybrid wheel" explains Fumiiri "that has a different character in each view".

There's a deep philosophy behind the concept but the milled model appeared to find few friends amongst designers that Car Design News spoke to and it seems the resolution of the design was too raw to be more accepted here in Geneva.