In the early noughties he famously caused outraged brand loyalists to picket BMW’s ‘four cylinder building’ in Munich, angry that his controversial design direction was ruining the brand. But now, auto design guru Chris Bangle is calling for more creativity in car design.
In an interview with influential industry magazine ‘Automotive News Europe’, Bangle says car designers are stuck in a phase he terms ‘mannerism,’ relying on approaches and elements from the past.
Bangle, who left BMW in 2009 to establish his own studio, says, “There is a real need for a change and that’s just not happening.” He adds many designers talk about innovation, but nobody is really doing it.
Since leaving BMW he claims to have turned down design director roles at several auto brands. “Designing cars consumes you; it has a hold on your spirit which is incredibly powerful,” he says. “It’s not something you can do part time, you have to do it with all your heart and soul or you’re going to get it wrong.”
While he loved working for BMW, he says “you have to know when to leave the party.”
Sandy Sanderson lives in Hamilton, New Zealand and turns aluminium drink cans into amazing automotive works of art.
A long term admirer of the graphics decorating beer and soft drink cans, he uses anywhere between eight and 30 cans to make each of these amazingly detailed 1:10 scale hot rods, buggies and racers.
His website includes instructions on how to make your own can car, as well as a blog and fan picture gallery.
Sanderson says the cars take around 43 hours to create, and sell for between $800 and $2000 NZ dollars.
Click here for the SANDY’s CAN CARS site.
Jaguar has issued a teaser image of its C-X17 cross-over concept, confirmed to appear at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show (Sept. 12-22).
The study has been created to explore design and engineering possibilities of Jaguar’s new modular aluminium architecture.
Two years ago at Frankfurt, Jaguar unveiled the C-X16 concept that proved to be the precursor to the F-Type sports car, and it’s likely this SUV-style vehicle will follow a similarly rapid path to production.
Jaguar has already recognised the importance of practicality and lifestyle enhancement with the launch of the XF Sportbrake last year.
Wheels has stumbled across these shots of what is possibly the world’s greenest car.
But far from an exotic, fuel-sipping hybrid or hydrogen-electric ZEV, this is a 1998 Mitsubishi Magna, totally wrapped in synthetic grass.
For sale on eBay late last year, the Queensland registered sedan allegedly drew enthusiastic bidding, with the sale price soaring towards $1000.
Saving the planet, one old banger at a time…
An Australian hobbyist is taking the car modeling world by storm with his incredibly detailed die-cast ‘wrecks.’
After more than a decade in car sales, Scott Fuller changed career path and headed into the mining industry, but he needed an outlet for the petrol still flowing through his veins.
Inspired by an aging model of a Holden Monaro that used to sit on his office desk, Fuller decided to take a new model and see if he could replicate the real-world look of a classic car that’s seen better days.
The results are simple amazing, with rust, dents, grimy trim and oily engines added with convincing realism.
They’re so good, even a lucrative mining job may go by the wayside as this ‘side business’, Custom Wrecks, grows.
Click HERE to check out the Custom Wrecks Facebook page, and HERE to visit the eBay store.
It took Algerian-born artist Eric van Hove nine months to produce ‘V12 Laraki’, an incredibly detailed and decorated reproduction of a Mercedes-Benz V12 engine, using a range of decidedly non-automotive materials including wood, mother of pearl, goat bone, onyx, stone, cow horn, and ammonite fossils.
Working in Morroco, van Hove used a total of 53 materials, hand-forged by 35 craftspeople from around the country. The piece consists of 465 hand-made parts (not including 660 cast-copper bolts).
Volvo has issued pre-release images of a stunningly beautiful Coupe Concept it will unveil at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show (Sept. 12-22).
Created by an in-house team, led by Volvo design chief Thomas Ingenlath, the Coupe is the first of a series of three concept cars Volvo says will illustrate the flexibility of its new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA).
The petrol plug-in hybrid driveline combines a supercharged and turbo-charged 2.0-litre four cylinder petrol engine with an electric motor on the rear axle, for a combined output of 300kW/600Nm.
Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG. It’s the hottest thing on the block since JLo went viral.
If you want one, and haven’t already ordered it, you’re looking at a March 2014 delivery date, but take it from us, it’ll be worth the wait. Introducing the new king of hot-hatches.
Any car capable of a 12.6-second standing 400m sprint is well and truly on the money, but a small, series-production hatchback that can do a twelve-six is unheard of. That said, the A45 is a deceptive little beast. It short-shifts in first and second gears – accompanied by a delicious ‘whip-crack’ from the quad exhausts – and it’s so stable around the Phillip Island circuit that only a glance at the speedo reveals just how mega-quick this baby is.
We drove two versions on the track today – the ‘standard’ car and one fitted with $1990 worth of sports suspension, that stiffens the springs by 20 percent. The stock A45 gets its power down beautifully and holds plenty of corner speed, but the sports-suspended, track-biased version is that much better again. It tips into a corner more precisely, and favours its outside-rear tyre more balance-wise – removing the mild understeer of the standard car on some corner exits. Its balance is also more sensitive to throttle inputs and it seems to carry a smidge more corner speed. But is the sports suspension a step too far on the road? We’ll find out tomorrow!
Emerging design superstar, Samir Sadikhov, has created the DBC, an achingly beautiful concept for a mid/rear-engine, rear-wheel drive Aston Martin supercar.
After training at the istituto europeo di design in Milan, the Azerbaijan-born prodigy came to prominence in 2011, taking out runner-up spot in Ferrari’s World Design Contest with his dramatic Xerzri concept.
Having spent time at Lamborghini, contributing to the Aventador J and Urus concepts, he is wowing the automotive world with this Aston idea, that is sadly, likely to remain a drawing board beauty.
See more designs at Samir Sadikhov’s website.
Speed, time, pressure, temperature … the dashboard is the window to a car’s vital functions and settings.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t be distinctive and reflective of a vehicle’s unique personality.
Wheels has compiled a Top 20 list of some of the design greats from the past, present and future.
