From the first time I saw a toy car or magazine ad for a car I have been fascinated by auto design. I use to dream how great it would be to design my own car. That's why I found this show on how cutting edge tools are shaping how design teams work towards a finished model these days so good.

 

That is all great, but today's auto designs leave a lot to be desired IMO. Makes me wonder who comes up with some of these design cues, the focus group approach really doesn't work IMO. It seems like they don't put auto enthusiasts into those focus groups ?

 

I'm a big fan of Pininfarina, have always loved their designs.

 

I agree, most of the new stuff leaves me cold. Many are way over done when it comes designs that hurt my eyes. I'm old school and like round shapley styles out of 60s and I can't stand the big gaudy wheels that have been a fad for several years. Front end safety and gas mileage have forced companies to forget about curb appeal IMHO. I felt the design guy on the show gets it. So often, simple means more. It was the tools they have available now that I found of interest.

 

I like some of Dave Kindig’s restoration designs in Salt Lake City. Also Dan Short with Fantom Works (VA) comes up with some nice ideas. But IMO the S2000 design is still current and very attractive. Especially in Rio!

 

My personal top 10 favorite car designs:
1. XKE (Enzo was correct)
2. Ferrari Dino 206/246 (Most beautifully proportioned Ferrari ever IMHO)
3. Toyota 2000 GT (XKE clone? I don't care.)
4. 1961 Imperial (American mid-century excess exemplified)
5. VW Karman Ghia (Best Beetle Kit Car ever, Styled by Ghia SPA and hand built bodywork by Karmann)
6. Cord 812 Phaeton (So clean, so pure)
7. FD RX-7 (If one survives, it will be on the lawn at Pebble sometime in the 2040s)
8. Corvette Stingray Split Window Coupe (Styling from the House of the General that has yet to be equaled)
9. Duesenberg Model J (Yeah, it's a duessy)
10. Pontiac Aztek (Oh, you're still here?)

What did I leave out?

 

The Dino 2 series big brother the 308 is my favorite design. There are actually 2 different designs for the 308, the gts and b series designed by pininfarina and the 308 GT-4 which was a Bertone design. I prefer the pininfarina design the Bertone design was much more of a wedge shape and while not bad not as well done as the pininfarina design in my opinion.
I always found the Pagoda Mercedes SL's to be an interesting design.

 

I find the front end grille designs of many cars to be very offensive. Acura has been horrible for years, the new BMW's are ridiculous, Audi are very over-sized too.

 

This is the primary reason why the+1 will not replace his Lexus with another one. The grille is the ugliest design I have ever seen.

 

I agree, the newer Lexus grilles are pretty bad too.