Will we see more concept cars with a retro flair?

I think the concept Ferrari "Dino" is absolutely gorgeous, look at all the 24 Hours of LeMans and 60's styling cues on this. Given the acceleration of green powerplant development could there be Cadillacs and Chevrolets and Fords from the 40's and 50's having their touches resurface?

 

PS - I wish Ford's Forty Nine concept was a reality...

 

No we'll have to do it ourselves. But that's how Hot rodding started. the mother of necessity putting modern powertrains in old iron. I don't see too much of a stretch for a well engineered turbodiesel in a highboy getting 40 mpg and still barking the tires.

 

MY FATHER IS A FIREMAN. ONE OF THE GUYS AT HIS STATION BUILDSCHOPPERS WITH DIESEL ENGINES IN THEM. SOME KIND OF DESIGN HE CAME UP WITH. APPARENTLY IT CAN BE BUILT FOR CHEAP. I GUESS IF IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A MOTORCYCLE THEN WHY NOT A HOT ROD. I'D PUT A DIESEL IN A CUSTOM. WHY NOT.


AS FOR THE CONCEPT CARS. I HOPE THEY KEEP THEM COMING. I LOVE SEEING THE NEW IDEAS. BUT I HAVE A DESIGNERS EYE.

 

not a big stretch at all.
audi has done pretty well for itself in F1...



can't imagine what it smell like though

 

There's a cat afew towns away that delights in putting modern diesels into old rigs. He seems to do this almost exclusively to Mopar stuff that I have seen, I didn't know this was desirable knowledge.
My Dad and I went there to look at a 54 Ford p/u ... it was this rambling barn/shop/old dairy processing plant and the "truck" was ****tered in pieces all over the place. It took almost an hour and a half to see all the various parts and for my dad to decide it was more work than he was looking for, but the guy delighted in showing off his various older (non-HAMB friendly) cars outfitted with modern diesels.
Hmm.

 

Retro seems to be a big thing now, so I think they will start doing more cars that look old but have all of the convenience of modern cars and their drive train, but someday it will become old news as all fads do.

 

I really don't like th retro trend, i think it's a crutch for designers. I want something completely new, fresh and innovative in new cars... This is 2007 right?

Don't get me wrong, I love old cars, but I want to feel the way that people in the 50's did when those crazy new designs came out each year.. can you imagine what it felt like to see fins on a car for the first time?

 

I'm pretty sure the Ranger replacement is already set in stone, But I'd like to see a retro-styled small pickup line, along the lines of the 48-52 F-1s with a tall seating position. Put some small 4-5 cylinder diesels in em and brakes and ch***is stout enough to tow about 5K lbs.

Leave the leather seats off the option list and go with an Xterra utility theme.

 

I've got to say that the retro styling is getting my attension. In today's day of design, eveything is being built more for utility and not style. I miss the day when a car was just as much a piece of art. Flowing curves, fins that made a statement, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I like originality, but I think I'll puke if I see another chiseled edge, or Toyota Echo. Come on Detroit, bring design back to the table!

 

HMMMM. A ***y, smooth, swoopy custom that sounds constantly like the rods are KNOCKING! I can't stand the sound of those things next to me at a stoplight in a truck. In a custom? I'm going with no

 

Detroit has repeatedly been doing "Retro" since the '70's.
Tink about the '70's Grand Prix with the '30's-'40's looking hood line and verticle grill reintroduced in it's style, and the Black Hawk built on the same ch***is.
Then there was the Cord coffin nose inspired second (third?) generation Olds Toronado body around '77.
Lincolns and Cadillacs, especially the Eldorado, put the '30's hood line back on their cars then too.
The new Corvette is retro in detail thought if not shape in that it has returned to exposed headlights instead of pop-ups and they put the gas door right behind the driver's door, where it was on the first 9 years of them.

I just dread the day someone thinks fake wood grain inserted 22" spoke wheels is a good idea for a trend.

VW did it already with the new gen Bug and then there's the BMW MINI

The problem I've seen in the past couple decades is, the "new" designers will use retro design motifs but they don't study their badges history and will steal a body line or idea from some other car maker's design ideas. I find this especially irritating when its coming from companies that didn't even make cars before the 50's or 60's or even the 80's.
For instance, Honda, (the company my Wife works for, in the Honda R&D model shop, hands on making the concept cars,) has no company history of cars with 30's-'40's style hood lines so they really shouldn't use those design details. But they do, especially on their "trucks".

I'd like to see Ford stamp out the same body panels they used on the '56 Tbird and put it on a current all independent suspended efficient powered and safe ch***is, but still look EXACTLY like a '56 Thunderbird!

KnowhatImean?

 

Since the designers can't find their *** with both hands, they NEED the crutch. I like the new Mustangs. In a sea of belly****on garbage, the Mustang's one of very few new cars i enjoy looking at. When i was a kid going on a trip with the parents, i would gaze from the back seat and admire all the shapes of those 50's and 60's cars in awe. I can't imagine doing that now/today

 

God, I can't believe I am typing this BUT I do agree with Groucho on the sound. The rest of the car rocks though.

 

First you rocked me with your F'n this, and F'n that on a thread a few weeks ago. Completely unexpected, but appreciated that you took the situation with a smile. Now THIS? My God, i can hardly contain myself. Maybe we're more alike than you'd care to admit? hahaha

 

Have any of you seen the new Lamboghini Muira concept car? Dead ****ing ***y!


http://www.autoitalia.pun.pl/viewprintable.php?id=6

 

I read an article recently that said that Ford was "in trouble" because they have not come up with a new car design for decades. The Mustang is a re-tread of an old design as is the F1 truck. The last design that made them a bunch of cash was the Taurus.

And speaking of the retro look, (for those of you who haven't seen it), check out this monstrosity:
http://www.57cl***icchevy.com/789-chevy.html
One of my car collector friends put it best when he said this was the kind of car that after a few weeks of ownership, you wake up, go out to the garage, and say to yourself "what was I thinking"!

 

The new Ferrari 599 ain't shabby either ($265 thousand; 2 year wait)
http://www.supercars.net/Pics?v=y&s=c&id=3347&p=2006_Ferrari_599GTBFiorano2.jpg

 

Id seen that before... And God its ugly...

One thing I hate seeing in new cars, and old cars for that matter, is people making changes, not improvments...

 

I'll admit, I do like that dino, and the Ford GT and the Muira concept... I'd love to have any of those, but give us something new and exciting to go with it.

 

Everything that's old becomes new again. It's just the cycle. I believe the late 50's through early 60's were an extremely rich period for automotive design. Maybe some of the most creative if not flambouyant. I'd like to see some of those elements come back into todays mainstream cars.

 

The Taurus didn't do all that well in the long run. Sure, it was a success at first, but once they let the design get old, the only ones they could sell were to rental agencies. That skewed the sales numbers and made it look better than it was.

Ford is really aggrivating me right now. They can't sell enough Five Hundreds so what do they do? Slap a Fusion/Edge grille on it and call it a Taurus. On top of that, they let the Ranger wither on the vine. Now I hear they're having troubles with the turbos on the new SuperDuty's. It will be a long time before they recover.

 

I think that the big boys in Detroit are realizing that the majority of the new car buyers market are middle aged men and women longing for yesteryear so why not build a car to take them there?

As for if I like it or not, yes and no. I like the new Camaro because it harkens to my favorite body style. Do I think they are using it as a crutch? Yes.

I too can only wonder what it was like in the 50s to see fins for the first time. Most new car stylings really don't impress me. The ways new cars can perform does impress me. (I don't mean power or mileage really, more like gadget wise).

I am soooooo sick of seeing really cool concept cars that never make it to production. What a waste of time, talent and lots of money.

New cars today seem to be shrinking smaller and smaller. I hate to think that someday everyone will be driving "smart" cars!

 

I think designers are having to work with what the engineers give them instead of a designer drawing an awesome concept, handing it to an engineer, and saying "make this work." The Apple ipod/iphone is a good example of letting designers do the engineering.

 

I think it might be that the designers come up with a concept before taking into account all that the engineers will have to have in the end product. I think the designers back in the 50's had a better idea what they had to allow for to make the car work (it was simplier back then, less stuff to screw up your design). How many times have you seen a cool concept drawing and when the final product comes out it's all wonky because the new car has to have the right bumpers/safety stuff/electronics...ect.

 

Holy ****, since when has 'Roid Coddington started designing for Chevy? That's the worst thing I've seen since the SSR. What an abortion!

 

Automotive designers design a great looking ride. We engineers can make just about anything work.....Until the bean counters see the price tag and kill it because it aint profitable (enough!). Then we're back to a variation of the same box we had before, except it's new & improved

I think that there is room for MODERN diesels in a small segment of hot rods. I'm thinking along the lines of the BMW p*** car diesels. They have incredible performance under the right tuning. The modern engines are quiet and very efficient...although they will never sound like a hot rod .

 

Ford GT is great. The T-Bird was a disaster. PT Cruiser ****s. SSR ****s. The retro Mustang,if you're a Mustang guy,is nice. Retro Camaro ****s. New Chalenger isn't that bad. That Lamborgini Muira is BAD***! I'd rather see new designs.
The first time I saw a 59 Caddy,I was about 4 or 5,I thought it was a space ship! Taillights looked like rockets,to me. I'll never forget it.

 

I always loved the styling on the "Personal Luxury cars" of the 60's.

Hidden headlights, wall to wall taillights, gadgets and do das. Riv's Toronados, T-birds and the '69, '70 Marauders and full size Grand Prix. Style with lots of substance. It's too bad they can't get that sort of styling coupled with all neat **** the put in them today without getting into BMW/ Mercedes territory price wise. I think the trends in newer cars will have more video game ******** in them personally. I was in an M5 recently and I still don't get the idea of having to press 3 ****ons to turn up the volume on the radio(?) It had a tiptronic clutchless transmission. Where the hell is the fun in that? May's well be a slush box! It was a beautiful car don't get me wrong but most owners of those cars won't ever use them to their true potential, shame really.

 

I could be wrong(I havent read that much on it), but I was under the impression it was being made by an outside company, not Chevy.