Canadian International Auto Show High-Low

As I didn’t manage to post a good auto show review from Detroit, I’d thought I’d head over to the Toronto Convention Centre to check out the rides at the Canadian International Auto Show. I should start off by saying that this event is really more of a local dealer show than a major car happening. Without a real automotive industry in this country I guess it’s all that we can expect. However, it does give Torontonians a chance to see the latest and upcoming hardware and even look at a few recent (as in 1 to 2 years old) prototype vehicles.

There were some standouts for me. The Infiniti Essense concept was superb. Its graceful shapes and unique bulging beltline stopped many visitors for a closer look. As well, the Lincoln Concept C was a great vision for an upscale small car. Its futuristic interior in white with polished aluminum accents was beautiful. On the other hand the much anticipated Honda CR-Z hybrid sportscar disappointed. Somehow, the body just doesn’t hang together well and I find the front overhang makes the car look heavy. The forms seem mismatched. There are organic bits mixed with tighter tense lines. The mashup doesn’t play very well.

Two vehicles though illustrate how to and how not to dream up cars. The Volkwagen Up Lite concept was my favourite vehicle in the show. This concept for an ultra-high mileage automobile is functional and also very sophisticated. The simple shape has aerodynamics in mind yet it doesn’t bore the viewer as many low air drag vehicles do. There is no homage to ugly anatomical aero-shapes. The lines are crisp and they interrupt the two box design in the right places. I love how they tapered the roofline for low drag not only in the side elevation but the plan view also.

From the sublime we travel to the ridiculous. When I mentioned in the first paragraph that Canada doesn’t have a real car industry I meant it. Tucked away in a corner of the show was some good ole CanCon. The Plethore is Canada’s Supercar that begs the question, why do we need a supercar? While car companies around the world are trying to reduce fuel consumption, this Quebec-based enterprise is trying to take on the Bugatti Veyron. This car was the opposite of the Up Lite not only in purpose but in looks. It truly is a plethora of design details. I see styling hints from Ferrari, McLaren and Peugeot and this mélange is not pretty. The front view looks like a cartoon villain saying “can I look meaner”. It’s really too bad that all this great engineering went into a fuel burner that few people can own rather than an intelligent transportation solution that this over-polluted planet is in dire need of.

Photo: VW Up Lite

Bono: Popstar to CarCzar

Bono’s latest editorial in Sunday’s New York Times on the state of automotive design certainly struck a sweet chord with me.

The auto industry’s dismal collection of minivans, SUVs and un-sexy sedans of the last few decades has stuffed our roads with a lot of visual jalopies. His proposed installation of figures like Marc Newson, Steve Jobs and Frank Gehry as auto-supremos might seem flighty but we need only look back to the automotive heyday to see that these new hires could really make the industry rock again.

In the 1960s, Detroit was run by the engineering departments. Born of these development teams were products like the Mustang, the GTO and some very elegant Lincolns. All became icons of American ingenuity and creativity. The 1970s saw direction go from the gearheads to the beancounters and what we have is our present day tedium. We have our “safe” solutions, our “family feeling” where all the cars in the brand share the same styling flavors. The big problem is that all the world’s brands (with a couple of exceptions) are getting their flavor from the same spice rack.

The important difference to acknowledge is that the 1960s had a more design-driven approach while subsequent decades opted for a corporate approach with shareholders affecting the decision-making. This is an environment that stifles the bold solitary visionary while embracing a design by committee product development method.

There is abundant talent in the car styling studios of the world. Note ex-BMW design director Chris Bangle. His flame surfaced Z4 is still the coolest BMW of the last decade and his “Bangle butt” 7 Series while the butt of much criticism continues to be copied today. Mazda consistently holds up the design torch and can make even a smaller car like the new Mazda 3 Sport look lovely.

The ability is there but its fruits are not always sold to the market. For example, Renault continues to captivate with its show cars but the latest Clio and Megane models are quite dull.

So Bono, I vote with you. Let’s make the designers the vocalists and lead guitarists of the auto industry and not the background singers.

My Eco Epiphany

The word epiphany has come to mean a reckoning, an awakening or an event that can change one’s life or way of thinking. So as we pass this day on Christian calendars, I’d like to share my Eco-Epiphany.

First some background. My dream from as far back as I can remember was to become a car designer. And of course, within a future car designer’s dream there lies that even bigger desire to design big displacement, multi-cylinder, long hooded, super exotic sportscars. When I lived in Turin, working as an automotive stylist in a large design house, I designed for companies that made these. So it is quite ironic that my epiphany happened in the very place where these machines are conceived.

It was just before Christmas 1991. On a typical dull, colourless, Torinese winter day, I boarded a plane headed for Amsterdam. But on takeoff, I noted a strange sight. As the aircraft ascended, I could make out a precise distinction between the purple coloured smog and the cleaner air above it. With each second that passed, this line descended on the window until it was gone. It was as if the plane was emerging from a polluted lake. Looking down a few moments later, I could see this haze, purple like the Hendrix song hanging over the city, a smoggy shroud of Turin.

From that day on, I dreamed a revised dream. My objects of desire suddenly had less cylinders if none at all. The world seemed in need of new solutions very quickly. It was in that moment that my dream machines became leafy green instead of Italian racing red.

I have always retained since that day that people would need new solutions to transportation. Whether it’s mass transit, human powered vehicles or just cars without the petroleum, the world would have to evolve. Sadly, it has not evolved quickly enough. So in this new decade I hope that political leaders and industrialists will have their epiphanies also.