Design

McLaren has already sold all 106 examples of the coming Speedtail – a bonkers “Hyper-GT” car that is aiming at a 250 mph top speed. Each example of the incredible car will be unique with no two looking exactly alike.

If cars are indeed your thing, then what is the equivalent of having tasteful amounts of sex appeal? Does it go beyond beltline curves, carbon fiber, Alcantara, and aluminum? The vehicular landscape is one that comes littered with both staggeringly good and bad design touches, and while concepts like Infiniti’s insanely sleek Q Inspiration stirred the Detroit auto show this year, there’s a lot to love about Chicago’s shindig a couple weeks later as well.

If you look back at cars in the 1970s and 1980s, the vast majority of them were angular and boxy. But at some point in the 1990s, those corners started to soften, leading to the curvy and smooth designs we’re used to today.

Elio Motors has announced that it has completed the final stage of engineering for its diminutive E-Series vehicles. This means the chassis design is complete and the next phase for the carmaker will be real-world testing.

Toyota has announced that it will be making an appearance at Milan Design Week this coming April to display its new open wheel concept car. The 2-seater is called the Setsuna, which translates to “moment.” The name is meant to reflect the moments a person enjoys with their car.

Bentley is a super-luxury brand that is well known for giving the well-heeled buyers the ability to completely customize the inside of the car. Buyers can choose from trims like leather, carbon fiber, metal and wood.

Like us, our friend Caleb Kraft loves cars. But he’s not a spec freak like some people. Caleb appreciates the design and engineering of cars thanks to his technical background. From their aerodynamics, to subtle design attributes, and things like the way their engines are placed for ideal weight balance, these are the kinds of details that excite him.

Ferrari recently held a challenge for design students to show off their skills, and give us a glimpse at what they think the Ferrari of 2040 will look like. The contest started with 50 colleges competing in round one, that number was whittled down to eight schools before four were chosen as finalists.

I am often on the fence about the way new cars look until I see them in person. I had the chance a couple weeks back to get up close and personal with a new 2015 Mustang.

ORECA, a company best know for a few really, really fast vehicles that compete in Le Mans, just geeked out about the same thing everybody is geeking out about: Star Wars. Instead of showing semi-interested friends and family or firing off inane tweets, ORECA did something spectacular. 

Paul Bracq begin his automotive career at Mercedes-Benz, and eventually moved over to BMW where he created some of the German automaker’s prototypes. Working as BMW’s director of design, Bracq worked on the prototypes based on the BMW 1600Ti and a coupe concept based on the Simca 1100.

Having recently visited Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan headquarters to see how they designed the 2015 Mustang, I was extremely impressed with the skills of the designers and modelers who brought the car to life. While computers play a major role in the automotive design and development process these days, almost every car built still goes through a clay modeling process to help bring 3-dimensional mockups to life.

We recently had the opportunity to visit with the design team behind the 2015 Ford Mustang, and learned about the process behind the design of the car, as well as some of the amazing craftsmanship in the design, modeling, and prototyping process.