Monday Morning Moment of Zen

Facel Vega:  Perhaps one of the coolest tail lamp details ever?

GM Styling sketches from the Mitchell Era

Olds Toronado

Buick Riviera

Cadillac Eldorado

I've seen a heck of a lot of styling sketches in my life, but these really knocked my socks off.  Not only are they eye catching designs from Bill Mitchell's crisp "London Tailored" period, but the use of line weight, shading, and forced perspective is just masterful.

Automobiliac Archive: Speed, Style and Beauty Exhibition

Back in 2005, Ralph Lauren displayed his truly world class car collection at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition was entitled "Speed, Style, and Beauty." The show was well worth the trip to go and see it. Here from deep within my hard drive are photos I took at that show. Some are a tad blurry because the light was low and I did not have a tripod. Click on the pic below to see the rest. If you want to see truly phenominal photos of these cars, I'd recommend you pick up the official book of the exhibition shot by celebrated photographer Michael Furman.

The Automobiliac Proposes: Vol. #1

I am a frustrated car designer.  I will admit it right now.  When I started my design education, I had dreams of Pininfarina or Bertone spinning in my head.  But over time, I realized I wasn't cut out for that and that my strengths lay in other aspects of the design profession.  I have no regrets about my choices, but once in a while I get the urge to play armchair car designer when I see a detail that really bugs the hell out of me.  In an onging series called "The Automobiliac Proposes" I will put my money where my mouth is and try to show how I might have done it differently.  Feel free to hate on me, but sometimes I just gotta try...

For our first edition we have the spectacular new Ferrari 458 Italia.  It has garnered a mixed reception for its unusual headlight clusters.  I find them quite striking and in fact I think the front end is really well executed.  The car has lithe, pleasing lines and athletic proportions.  The detail that's an unmitigated disaster in my opinion is actually the tail light clusters.  They look so stuck on and cartoonish.  They look as if the real designer of the car at Pininfarina put his pen down, and a manager at Ferrari took out his Montblanc and said "don''t forget...at Ferrari we have round tail lights," and promptly drew them on.  This sad treatment is also echoed on the California, which means it is someone''s idea of a "family look" for the Prancing Horse.  I'll leave the California for another day when I am feeling ambitious because there is so much wrong with that car it looks like a GM concept car from the early 90s.

The 458 Italia on the other hand is near perfect, except for those round tail lights.  For my proposal, I merely reconnected the taut lines the designer already created, which were previously interrupted by the round lights.  Inside the rear vents, I have placed some slim LED tail lamps.  I didn't go crazy detailing them to look real, but I think you get the idea.