Either the Thunderbird or the Beetle had to go.
With a baby on the way and two vintage cars in our garage, one a red 1963 VW Ragtop Mike’s owned since age 15 and the other a champagne 1963 Ford T-bird, a tough decision had to be made. One of them had to be replaced…
The year was 2006, and, believe it or not, these old-timers were pretty much the only cars we’d ever owned. With our purchase of a new car that winter, we made a 43 year leap in automotive technology overnight.
Today’s car industry is brainwashed by its own car culture, with its obsession for speed, styling and fantasy. The car business has become one of repackaging, steering people’s focus towards style and a narrow definition of performance, not on our true needs.
We quickly realized, however, that despite 43 years of automotive progress, with its advances in safety, efficiency, and manufacturing, the driving experience remains basically the same as it was in 1963.
After experiencing this somewhat disappointing time warp, we wondered how we could contribute a new point of view and perhaps spark more significant progress for the next 40 years.
The current climate gave us the final push–with the car industry lost, an urgent focus on global warming, awareness of oil dependency, and the economic down turn, the stars had aligned. It is time to sow seeds, to experiment. Armed with a small design studio, we set out to design a concept car in search of an optimistic new future. And it quickly became clear to us:
A shift must take place from styling cars to redefining them.
(more…)
