All articles by Nick Hull – Page 7
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Design Review: Honda OSM concept
With the unveiling of the forthcoming Insight in Paris, Honda suddenly has a plethora of hybrid models in their line-up, which seems to be getting slightly confusing. Firstly, there's the Civic hybrid sedan that's been on sale since 2003 and recently facelifted for 2009. Then there's the new Insight concept, ...
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Interview: Marek Reichman, Design Director, Aston Martin
CDN: Like Bentley, the brand has moved massively in a few years from making a handful of cars for anglophile connoisseurs to making 7000 cars last year, selling globally to footballers and Russian billionaires. You've popularized what was there before, but what's next big step for the brand?
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Interview: Marek Reichman, Design Director, Aston Martin
Range Rover, Rolls-Royce, Lincoln and now Aston Martin: it seems Marek Reichman's career has always been associated with luxury cars.
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Interview: Dirk van Braekel, Design Director, Bentley Motors
CDN: There's a huge 'back catalogue' of special-bodied Bentleys to choose from.
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Interview: Dirk van Braekel, Design Director, Bentley Motors
Last month, Dirk van Braekel received the 2007 laureate of Antwerp's Christoffel Plantin award, which honors Belgian citizens whose cultural, artistic or scientific activities contribute to the country's prestige abroad. He is the first representative of the automotive industry to have been so honored.
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Geneva Motor Show 2005 Trends and Overview
Many stands featured 1970s cars as a reminder of their company's heritage. To support the launch of the new 3-Series, BMW showed a lovely 320i from 1975, plus a gorgeous 3.0CSL 'batmobile' from 1973. Alfa showed a Guilietta to support the release of the new 159, while Opel displayed a ...
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First Sight: Honda CR-V
Honda has released details of the all-new CR-V, which will be launched at the Paris Motor Show later this month. It aims to offer a driving experience as good as a D-sector saloon car, with improved equipment levels and Honda's latest advanced safety technology. The previous two generations of CR-V ...
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Interview: Li-Chih Fu, Design Director, Nanjing Auto
CDN: At Nanjing Automotive, how do you research future customer taste?
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Interview: Li-Chih Fu, Design Director, Nanjing Auto
Li-Chih Fu has become one of China's best-known designers. Besides automotive consulting projects with Xiang Automotive Concept Lab., he is also Nanjing Automotive Corporation's Design Director and is actively involved in the styling evolution of its newly-acquired British MG brand. He is proactive in promoting Chinese design and will be ...
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Design Review: Chevrolet HHR
The debate surrounding the new Chevrolet HHR (Heritage High Roof) has been up and running for some weeks now, even before the car was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show last week. The criticism that its '49 Suburban retro-styling apes that of the Chrysler PT Cruiser and therefore won't ...
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Design Development: Peugeot 308
While the exterior can be seen as an evolution of the 307, the interior represents a clean break from former Peugeots. Pierre Authier, Assistant Design Director explains the process: "In 2003 when we first created the interior of the 308, we returned from holidays earlier: we held a meeting, ...
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Design Development: Peugeot 308
Presented to the world's media on 27th June and launched to the public at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, the new 308 represents a transition for Peugeot Design. While the older 307 - launched back in 2001 - represented a dramatic change of direction for Peugeot in the lower ...
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Paris Motor Show 2004 Trends and Overview
Car design inevitably goes in set patterns: large, radical leaps tend to be followed up by small evolutionary steps, especially for those second-generation models of a previous all-new concept. One dominant theme of this year's Paris Motor Show was the very conservative redesigns of some of 1990's most successful production ...
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Design Review: Dacia Duster concept
The cabin is a successful example of bringing together a number of current trends and giving them a new twist. The deeply bucketed driver's seat is incorporated in a structure which extends all the way from the sill to the center console, forming a sculptural, one-piece ensemble that echoes the ...
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Design Review: Dacia Duster concept
Renault's revival of the Dacia brand has been a resounding success in today's struggling car market. The original Logan model has gone on to sell over 750,000 units since 2004 and Renault feels it is now time to explore the next stage of the Dacia brand language - hence the ...
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Driven: Audi S5
Driving the S5 out of London in slow moving traffic on a warm Friday evening, it was interesting to observe other drivers' reactions to the car. A new BMW M5 jostled to get a closer look, several Audi TT drivers nonchalantly pulled up alongside to cast a glance at the ...
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Driven: Audi S5
Audi has a long heritage of producing big four-seat coupés, going back to the original Audi 100 in the late 1960's. The new A5 is an interesting new addition to the range that doesn't have many direct competitors. The BMW 3-series coupé is the most obvious, as is the softer ...
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Design Review: Ferrari FF
The concave sections that remain are nicely handled: a slight concavity is created in front of the front wheel, for example, reducing the volume of the bumper; and sections are hollowed in the hood between the fenders and the central nose, keeping the bodywork very close to the engine. There's ...
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Design Review: Ferrari FF
If asked to imagine a typical Ferrari, most people would conjure up a red two-seat supercar with a powerful mid-mounted engine. Indeed that's been the archetypical Ferrari for the past 40 years and in the 1980s Ferrari had little else in its lineup.
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Frankfurt Motor Show 2005 Trends and Overview
There's also a generic bodyside section that's becoming ubiquitous. First seen a couple of years ago, it's seems to have spread across every European studio now. It comprises three main elements: a strongly diving swage line towards the front wheel (like that on many recent Mercedes models); a vertical slit ...
