Cars

80X in design mold

I like them, a lot. Now not in the typical male way of knowing the nitty gritty with spec's, performance and getting messy under the hood. I like the design of them, shape, styling and importantly what the interior has to offer. Now dont get me wrong, Im not saying I'd take a car with a 9 liter engine and performance that sucks ass but it looks good, theres a limit that my mind has to that sort of thing.

Peugeot Airstream Concept

Ever since I could use a pencil I was drawing cars, on walls, paper, or any surface that I could draw on. I had many die cast models which I for some reason broken into pieces which resulted in me not getting any more for a long long time. Anyway point is its the design of them that caught me. I started off by drawing cars that existed then moved onto cars I wished that were made, newer models for certain brands etc.

My Peugeot Revo concept

My life ambition was to be a car designer but sadly in our country none of the colleges offer such a course one could study. If I wanted to I  had to venture out to study. BMW school of design made an offer but a year and half would have been for learning the language as all classes are conducted in German, now after learning Afrikaans for almost 10 years and not fully mastered it, German wasnt going to be the bike to learn to ride or the long route would have been doing an engineering course here then moving abroad to learn various design codes and so on.

My Peugeot 80X concept

But none the less with the "supreme skills" I've learnt on Auto CAD 3D I've tried my luck on Peugeot's Design contests they hold every 2 years. Its open to anyone who wants to design. Given a strict set of design details and a time frame you have to come up with a design that suits their specifications and give a brief 500 word write up on your design and how it suits what they're looking for. The competition is stiff and each one gets more difficult. The winner gets some prize money, gifts from the sponsors but the real score is that Peugeot builds a full size model of your design and displays it at a motorshow which they fly you to of course!

My Peugeot 80X concept

The guys out there with fast internet and freeware to do such detailed designs sometimes have you in awe that they're just teenagers sitting at home doing this as a past time. There are some talented blokes out there and shows with some time and vision, nothing is impossible. Car design for me is really important, so its good to see the youngsters willing to be so bold in what they create, of course car companies are not going to put all into production and if they do chose the various designs, it will be chopped and changed to make them most cost effective. Jaguar have really stepped their game up with Ian Callum's bold designs put into the works.

2011 KIA Cadenza

The Koreans, KIA & Hyundai have on the other hand taken the design rule book and thrown it out the door. Not sticking to low key conservative type designs any more, they're going bold and cutting edge. I say why not? Akio Toyoda was questioned 4 years back after the Toyota Camry won the car of the year title for the 2nd time running in the US, as to whether he was worried about what the Germans would have up their sleeve, he responded by saying that its not the Germans he was worried about, it was the Koreans! And as we look at our market now with KIA and Hyundai becoming the low cost brand of choice he had good reason to worry about them! Toyota are falling behind badly, their entire design team needs a shake up!

Toyota Blade

The Auris was a total failure in terms to competing with the Honda Civic and to make matters worse, 3/4 of the world didnt receive the range topping Blade! How they ever expect to see results while being so picky is beyond me. As for Toyota SA, dont get me started, you're better of talking to a brick wall. I love their brand and what they stand for but its high time they work up and realised people arent always gonna chose them because of their "reliable past". They need to up the anti and give the public something they'll want, not force them to take what they make.

I see a bright future for most car designs, as they look at becoming more pleasing to the eye and the big factor being "green" more companies will look at other materiel to build their cars with thus allowing for more bold designs that normally are fit for concept only cars.So heres hoping to a future of cars that more pleasant to look at on the road and less Multipla's and Micra's.

Note: All designs shown are mine with exception to the Cadenza & Blade.