It is to a car that Frank Ghery helped design. Now…I like Mr. Ghery’s easy edges chairs, but his car needs help. The most innovative and realistic part I see is the acryllic fenders. That would have been wonderful on the Prowler…at least for the first 5000 pit-free miles. After that they would probably be pitted with so many bug corpses pasted on them that they would be pretty disgusting.
Other than that, it features alot of ideas that are not manfacturable. I recall a Raymond Loewy book where he talked about a visit to a transportation design school. He saw many beautiful models that could never be produced because of manufacturing issues, safety issues and consumer preference issues. Mr. Loewy would probably tell Ghery the same thing. Manufacturing: what is that chassis made out of that it can hold a car together, unobtainium? Safety: is anything on this concept strong enough to meet even current impact standards let alone the standards that will be implemented in 5+ years? Consumer preference: Do people want their car’s hanging in their garage? What about when you leave your dog in your car and park it? What about that bag of groceries you just tossed in the trunk? Opps.
didnt see much on the manufacturing. but chassis looks whole lot like a classmate’s exo-skeleton concept from way back (helped get him a job in Detroit). reminds me of a Buckyball. forces might be more efficiently distributed (like that Egg project someone was doing). even so, i saw report after the Earnhardt jr crash. focus on safety is moving from car body to driver cocoon. let the body crumple. maybe this is similar idea with the inflated interior its got.
its okay. i really thought the hanger looked stupid. i’m tired of design drawing attention to so-called clever details. realistically that hanger should be spherical (more like the anti-theft hangers at hotels - ball on end goes in slot; cant use it at home). that way you could distribute stress. and rotate car in parking storage. assume thats what its really for. this solution trades being cute for functionality. bad trade off imo.
I think you make a lot of very relevant points but we should remember that this is a “concept” car. As with most concept cars it is not intended to be manufactured, it is more of a study. If all concept cars were designed for ease of manufacturing or to appeal to consumer tastes, we would all be driving Model T’s with 8 cilindar engines.
It’s funny that you mention the buckyball YKH as I meant to also mention that Ghery’s car resembles in many ways the dymaxion car of Buckminster Fuller. Well, except that Fuller’s car was manufacturable and safe on the highway.
It’s funny that you mention the buckyball YKH as I meant to also mention that Ghery’s car resembles in many ways the dymaxion car of Buckminster Fuller. Well, except that Fuller’s car was manufacturable and safe on the highway.
