Sunday Drive #6
Biweekly subjective automotive check-up. This time on dame's design work.
In the spirit of the yesterday's International Women's Day, in the sixth edition of "Sunday Drive," I will briefly outline the impact of several women on car design. This will, of course, not fully cover the subject, as there have been and are quite a few female designers. It suffices to mention Bertha Benz, who advised Carl on what should be improved in the pioneering vehicles, Helene Rother, who was the first female car designer in history (hired by General Motors in 1943), and Mary Anderson, who invented the windshield wiper. I hope we will return to them someday, but today we will focus on the creators of three exceptional cars: the second generation Honda NSX, the BMW Z4 E89, and the olive-green first-generation Corvette.
Premiere
On March 2, Karma Automotive showcased its latest car – the Gyesera. This is a fully electric "luxury" saloon, as they describe it themselves. Apart from a few design changes, especially in the front, the car's appearance does not differ much from the Revero model, whose history goes back to both the beginnings of the Karma brand and the painful downfall of Fisker Automotive – the business of a very talented Danish designer, Henrik Fisker. Among other things, Fisker's portfolio includes the design of the BMW Z8 and the co-design of the Aston Martin DB9 (together with Ian Callum). After leaving Aston, he created a series of companies that eventually led to the warmly received car named Fisker Karma. After a series of misfortunes, including a hurricane, the manufacturer declared bankruptcy. The remains were bought by the Chinese Wanxiang Group, which created the "Karma" brand from the model name. In June 2023, Michelle Christensen took up the position of Vice President and Chief of Design. Her first showcase of capabilities was the Keveya model presented in November – an ultra-luxury coupé.
Karma Kaveya. Source: Karma Automotive Michelle Christensen's portfolio is most brightly highlighted by the second (contemporary) generation of the Honda/Acura NSX. Thoughtful, offering joy from driving, and very technologically advanced, it failed in the market battles due to its origin. If it had borne a more noble badge, it would have become a legend. Or maybe it needed a contemporary Ayrton Senna, whose name would be entered into the register as a development driver and whose skills on the Suzuka circuit would become another YouTube hit. Honda did not plan anything like this, focusing instead on the technological race and aggressive exterior design, for which Michelle Christensen was responsible. Jay Leno's garage discusses the circumstances of its creation and design challenges:
Victorious Duo
In 2006, BMW announced an internal competition for the design of the second Z4 generation. The competition was won by a duo of designers from California's BMW DesignworksUSA: Juliane Blasi and Nadya Arnaout. The former created the bodywork, the latter the interior. To give everyone an equal chance, submissions were anonymous.
The project was still under the wing of the legendary Chris Bangle, who greatly supported the designers in their efforts. The car debuted at the Detroit Auto Show in 2009. That same year, it won several awards, including the Red Dot Design Award.
The paths of both designers diverged, Nadya Arnaout first went to Tesla (co-creating the interior of the Model S), and after a year, she teamed up with Henrik Fisker, mentioned earlier. Today, she is the chief interior design officer at Fisker Inc., whose latest product, the Ocean model, is now being criticized by every journalist alive.
Juliane Blasi stayed with BMW, and at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011, she presented the stunning future roadster project – BMW Vision ConnectedDrive. Special features include BMW Z1-style dropping doors and perhaps the first-ever passenger screen.
BMW Art Car
A glorious tradition of the Bavarian brand is to provide car bodies to visual artists. In 1991, Esther Mahlangu was invited to paint the 525i model, becoming the first artist from Africa in this project. 33 years later, BMW showcased the second Art Car by Esther – the BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA. However, this time the artist didn't paint it – the characteristic patterns of her painting are displayed by e-ink films and can change.
Does this improve my (unfavourable) opinion on the styling of the new BMW 5? No.
Teamwork
The "Damsels of Design" was a team of six designers created by Harley J. Earl, working for General Motors in the 1950s.
Their task was to improve the ergonomics of interiors, select materials, and implement new technologies. One of the most famous (and only surviving) projects of the team was the 1958 Corvette Fancy Free.
Painted in silver-olive colour, with several innovations that did not survive to our times (seasonal seat covers and a purse shelf) and two that did become the industry standard: retractable seat belts (previously they lied loose like those known from passenger aircraft) and a body crease for a licence plate. The history of the Damsels of Design and the creation of the Corvette can be seen in the first half of this documentary (the second half also contains an interesting story, but not related to the designers):
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