On the eve of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on Lake Como in Italy, MINI unveiled its Superleggera Vision, the first formal collaboration between the brand that loves…
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The history of Volvo is a storied one. Various ownership changes over the past decades and an arguable dearth in design innovation—the very quality that made the brand a beloved staple of intelligence in the industry—coupled with a few poor financial years has…
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Our personal video tour with Senior Interior Designer, Darren Day
From idea to reality in a mere seven months, Bentley’s polarizing EXP 9 F SUV concept premiered at the Geneva auto show in March 2012. Darren Day, the Senior Interior Designer at Bentley Motors and one of the lead designers on the concept, walked us through the car’s impressive details in our exclusive video at its private New York debut.
Mercedes’ augmented-reality design concept goes gestural
While augmented reality interfaces have had their moment on smartphones, the automobile windshield is a potentially more useful place to overlay contextual information. Mercedes’ Dynamic and Intuitive Control Experience (DICE) offers a look at how the manufacturer envisions getting everything from traffic data to information about passing landmarks. The concept ditches buttons and touch screens in favor of gesture-based controls that communicate information while driving. At CES, convention-goers were able to get a feel for the system in a virtual reality cube set up by Mercedes. While the concept might seem far off, in another hall at CES display manufacturers were showing their first prototypes of clear glass screens capable of full LED display—the missing link to making a concept like this real.
In an apparent nod to science fiction, pointing to a passing building brings up a short description along with the option to save the location to your favorite places. Mercedes is quick to push the social media angle, demonstrating how friend updates can be displayed for quick reference while driving. This being an in-car system, media playback takes a large part with browsing and song selection enabled.
While making a system like this real clearly requires balancing the need to avoid driver distraction, DICE shows the awesome potential of augmented reality in the years to come. Check out the newly released video to see DICE in action.
A resurrection of the 90s staple promises to redefine the brand
Unveiled today at NAIAS in Detroit is the new Acura NSX Concept, a supercar slated for sale in 2014. Sporting a 400 hp engine with a hybrid SH-AWD drivetrain, the sexed-up model is meant to combine green ideology with hedonistic performance. The current NSX is a revival of the suspended version that first established Acura in the luxury scene during the ’90s. Though the original enjoyed pop culture appearances galore, the line faltered in the early 2000s. The brand has long struggled with sales of recent models, but the NSX seems poised to put Acura back on the map.
The release of a high-performance model has been long in the making, with plans for an even more powerful V10 NSX abandoned as a result of the recession. The current version includes a direct-injected V6, dual clutch transmission and electric motor that work in conjunction for impressive acceleration and efficiency. For cornering ability, the new model uses a Bilateral Torque Adjustable Control System to create positive or negative torque on the front wheels. The rare combination of environmental considerations and next-generation performance aims to anticipate a shift in the expectations of a supercar.
Many details remain to be seen regarding the final product. The materials used for the lightweight body weren’t specified, and performance specs including fuel economy and acceleration haven’t been released. The NSX is set to be manufactured in Ohio, a move that will hopefully breath some new life into the perpetually troubled American auto industry. This is the sort of brand revival that can potentially be a major game changer within the industry, so we’re anxious to see where Acura takes it from here.
Six concept cars channel Hollywood for design inspiration
As part of the eighth annual Design Los Angeles automobile designer’s conference, this year’s Design Challenge tasked six studios from Germany, Japan and the U.S. to design “Hollywood’s Hottest New Movie Car.” Each team—Honda, Hyundai, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Smart—presented their idea through sketches, renderings, models and even mock movie trailers.
As a holistic design challenge—centered around but not exclusive to automotive concept—the competition judged each entry on how the vehicle reflects the brand within the movie plot, how it relates to their target audience, the level of imagination and character development of the vehicle and overall ingenuity of the story, car and character combination.
Standouts include the post-apocalypse-inspired Honda‘s IH (Intelligent Horse) and Subaru Horizon for their story development, while Mercedes-Benz wowed everyone with a full-scale model of their Silver Lightning—hoop wheels and all—a formula 1 inspired concept drawing a direct connection from past to future achieved through safety and style. Going after the inner child in everyone, Maybach‘s Berline gives Cinderella’s coach a futuristic transformation.
As the winner of the Challenge, the Smart 341 Parkour is reminiscent of the rocket-shooting, martini-shaking cars of James Bond lore, albeit pared down to tackle more everyday problems like small parking spaces. The Smart design team created the concept for Annie, a fictional investigative journalist in need of a car as curious as she. Thus, the 341 Parkour is capable of driving, flying and even climbing—best illustrated by Smart’s promotional trailer created for the Challenge.
For more information check 2011 LA Design Challenge online.
HJC Design’s innovative concept aims to connect the city through its rich architectural heritage
Designed to embody Prague’s renowned architectural past in a decidedly modern silhouette, the new Prague taxi concept offers a look at the possible future of city transportation inspired by its historical tram network. The creative concept, dubbed Praha, was done by U.K.-based product design and manufacture consultancy HJC Design, known for combining innovative technology and striking aesthetics. Technologically speaking, the unique taxi concept features high-intensity LED lights in the front and rear and a fully-integrated augmented-reality display that allows users to select their route—including virtual city tours on a central console modeled after the floral-motif ceiling of Prague’s Great Hall.
Numerous local elements have influenced the taxi’s overall design, drawing on the city and its rich architectural history in nearly every detail. Bench seating that fits up to five adults is composed of 18 wooden strips to symbolize Prague’s 18 bridges (the LED rear lights are also bunched in clusters of 18 bulbs to reference the rivers), while the dashboard, styled after the city’s skyline, is textured with 100 individual dimples to denote the “City of 100 Spires.” The floor’s hexagonal blueprint design represents Prague University’s solar cell technology while the taxi’s fluid curvature aims to follow that of the Vltava river.
For riders more interested in the surrounding city than the augmented-reality experience inside, a glass roof offers a panoramic view of the city, something often lost in transit. The red and white color scheme is also reminiscent of the Czech Republic’s flag as well as the city’s original tram design. For more information on Praha, check out HJC Design online .
Our exclusive look at how a 300 year old tree became a key element in Cadillac’s ultra-luxurious concept car
The Ciel is Cadillac’s latest attempt to reinvigorate the company’s heritage of American luxury—reflected both in its attention to detail and its desire to explore the journey of traveling by automobile. One of the concept car’s most striking elements is the solid olive wood used inside the passenger cabin. When talking to the car’s design team we learned about the extensive process they went through to integrate the wood into the design. Project Manager Alessandro Zezza from Cadillac’s Advanced Design Group shared the story of its creation—a long journey that began early in the design phase around two years ago. Make sure you check out the amazing images in our slideshow below.
Based on the complexity of the car’s initial drawings the team realized that veneered wood was not going to be an option, so Christine Ebner, who heads up color and trim in the studio, set out to find a hardwood solution. In addition to the usual concerns about finding wood that complimented the car’s design, the designers realized that they needed to mill the components from sequential planks, and that they needed 11 two-inch planks—four of which had to be glued together to create the interior’s larger pieces. That’s a very big, old tree and issues of sustainability were a big concern in the studio.
Christine, located what seemed like a prime candidate—a very rare, 300-year-old olive tree that had fallen in a storm in its native Naples, Italy—at Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford, PA, a wood yard outside of Philadelphia. Rick Hearne worked with Christine to find the perfect tree, and fortunately this one had already been dried in a kiln and been sequenced. Fortunately, the designers loved the Italian olive wood’s rich grain and markings, and the team set to work.
The journey began on a beautiful planer from the 1940s, which took on the 30″ wide trunk with ease. The planks were sanded, photographed, and aligned on a gantry mill (a large platform designed for cutting planks) with their outer skin still on. Registration holes were drilled, and XYZ coordinates taken. The planks were then replicated in Alias’s Autostudio using texture and planar maps, which enabled Alessando to analyze the grain and develop a very intricate map of from where each piece would be cut. An incredibly complex 3D puzzle, each piece needed to be cut around the tree’s knots and splits while also ensuring that the grain direction and tree ring orientation matched. There was only one trunk to work with, and every piece had to be accounted for.
Darryl Grijalva, the studio’s shop manager, then created the tool paths for each plank and part. Dowel pins were used to ensure that the boards lined up properly and stayed in place when they were glued. Once the blocks were ready they were sent over to 3D Mass Design and Engineering in Glendale, CA. Rocky Gonzalez, who oversaw the fabrication there, had to work around concerns of chipping and warping, but the wood cut beautifully.
From there they were sent over to Metalcrafters in Fountain Valley, CA for test fitting and then to Tom Houlden, who ensured that the wood was finished to spec with its final staining (medium warm) and finishing (clear satin). After their lengthy journey—from Italy to Philadelphia and from studio to studio around Los Angeles, the 21 completed pieces were brought back to Metalcrafters for their final fit, and then back to the GM studio for final assembly.
It seems appropriate that the journey of the wood, through the vision of the design team and the many skilled artisans who crafted the interior, isn’t that different from the kind of relaxed, refined and elegant journey the Ciel was designed to take.
Photos provided by the GM Design Studio; photos of the finished car by Josh Rubin. For more images see gallery below.
A luxuriously spacious concept car perfect for necking and long leisurely drives
Championing the glory of leisurely driving, Cadillac‘s stunning new open-air handcrafted concept car speaks to luxurious motoring while focusing on simplicity. There’s no question that this car says that Cadillac can (after many years) once again define American luxury; it looks clearly toward the future though respectful of the brand’s heritage.
Inspired by the California coast (the car was designed by GM’s LA-based Advanced Design studio) the Ciel—”sky” in French— is designed to comfortably seat four adults, featuring elegant lines and an elongated proportion that is surprisingly just a foot longer than the American manufacturer’s angular CTS Coupe. The Ciel sports a 3.6 liter V6 engine too, but it’s complimented by a hybrid system that uses lithium-ion batteries.
We had the chance to speak with members of the car’s design team during its debut at Pebble Beach: Clay Dean, the Executive Director GM Advanced Global Design and Cadillac Brand Director, Niki Smart, Exterior Design Manager, and Frank Saucedo, Director of the Advanced Global Design studio. The team spoke about wanting “to put some swagger back in Cadillac.” The same team worked on last year’s more angular and considerably smaller Urban Luxury Concept car, though the Ciel is more an exercise in restraint and simplicity and the traveler’s journey. It’s about going there as much as it is about arriving there. Smart adds “There are so many things graphically around the car, but when the science gets so good that it’s invisible, that’s truly art.”Dean elaborates, “I think it shows a nice bandwidth in what we’re thinking about at Cadillac right now and the versatility of the team.”
Selecting the color was a long and heated debate, finally resolved by taking pictures of how it changes in different light. Named Cabernet, the car’s color reflects various pigments of red, yellow and gold hues depending on how the light strikes it, like holding a glass of red wine up to the sun. The interior boasts an equally beautiful surface, with the inside of the suicide doors, the panel, console and front seatbacks made of solid wood from a singular fallen olive oil tree, recycled from a west coast olive oil producer. The designers took interest in making the interior as simple and clean as possible. The cabernet and sand leather interior features a laser-perforated design and wraps the entire interior space.
The team spoke at length about staying true to the original vision throughout the design process. Whenever they got stuck or felt they were veering too far from it they pulled out the original sketches, which we were fortunate to track down exclusively for our readers.
Dean says, “How many things can I take away that I don’t need to be bothered by?” To that end, zippers keep the contents of the storage areas contained, and the rear LCD screens are cleverly hidden by a sliding leather panel. The climate system is piped through a channel that surrounds the car instead of traditional vents. The dashboard is simplified and features technology that more seamlessly integrates with your phone and your data.
The studio worked with local vendors, including Metalcrafters for the body work.
Invoking dreams of romantic cross-country excursions or drives up the coast, the Ciel comes equipped to fulfill these sentiments: The low console, which spans the length of the vehicle’s interior, is kitted out with a humidor and cigars, a compartment stowing a cashmere blanket, drawers stocked with suntan lotion and sunglasses, and armrests with ambient lighting for nighttime drives. “Luxury is not something that you need. It’s something that you want,” explains Dean.
Physically manifesting the feeling of what it formerly meant to own—and drive—a Cadillac at the pinnacle of its reign, the Ciel, if manufactured, has the potential to be a future classic. Perhaps it will be known as the car that reestablished Cadillac’s reputation as a benchmark of living the American dream.
See more details of the Cadillac Ciel in the CH gallery below. To learn more about the car’s specs and to see videos of it in action, check out the dedicated website from GM.
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