WORLD EXCLUSIVE IS BACK New Design Uncovered L Gordon Murray Tech L Cosworth V8 Power
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3 JUNE 2015 £3.50 | AUTOCAR.CO.UK Mini JCW vs Audi S1 Fast £25k hatches go head to head TVRWORLD EXCLUSIVE IS BACK New design uncovered l Gordon Murray tech l Cosworth V8 power Plus The 10-year plan that means TVR won’t fail again ROAD TEST FIRST DRIVE EXCLUSIVE 3 J une 2015 | Mercedes-AMG C63 Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 New Vauxhall Viv a Ford Capri of 2025? New-age engine, old-style thrills Why £8k hatch could be better Design aces reimagine classics Classics reimagined | The designers CC What would happen if you lit the creative touchpapers of three elite car designers Ford Capri by asking them to redesign a classic Design of the front-engined, rear-drive 1969 Capri, which was sired by the appropriately named Project Colt SS model to their tastes? Richard Webber that aimed to create a Mustang for Europe, was overseen by Essex-based American Phil Clark as a follow-up stands back and enjoys the fireworks to his GBX concept. German Uwe Bahnsen penned the Mk2 and the Mk3 versions, which survived until 1986. RR hen Jaguar design boss design classic? We asked designers “I LEARNED TO drive in a Mk3 “I’ve kept the high-tailed fastback more tumblehome on the sides. At into the body via splitter detailing, Ian Callum revealed from Nissan, Jaguar and Morgan Capri 2.0 S,” says Wells. “I was blown shape, C-post graphic and long, the front I’ve incorporated the Mk3’s simplifying the nose but keeping its his personal take on the to pick a car from another marque away by the long bonnet and being at bulging bonnet of the Mk3, but horizontal vents, prominent bumper character. I used the new Ford GT’s Jaguar Mk2 last summer, (to eliminate any implied ‘design the wheel of a car for the first time, so lowered the waistline to cut through and rectangular indicator shapes front-end for inspiration. opinion was divided. Like direction’ for their own brand) the Capri has always excited me. the wheel arches. Some of the styling “Quad headlights were pretty PP Wit or not, however, it had and to produce their own personal “I’ve based the design on the of the early concepts was quite much mandatory. The Mk3’s a certain behind-the-curtain appeal, reinterpretation of it. 2.8 Injection Special but I used the dramatic, which I’ve also hinted headlights, Aerof low grille and rear for it represented the personal The visual potlatch that resulted inspirations for the Capri as my brief, at: the arches are squared-off in lights all inf luenced Ford design, so it automotive musings of one of the includes a radical Japanese take on rather than simply redesigning it. reference to the Mk1’s graphic that was important to keep them. EE world’s top car designers, his mind a 1950s British roadster, a cherished “The Capri was the European pony f licked up behind the rear wheel and “I’d like it to use Ford Ecoboost freed from mass-production realities. teenage memory made new and one car – our answer to the Mustang – so ran straight along the side of the car. engines: the GT’s twin-turbo 3.5 V6 So what would some of Callum’s designer’s chance to perfect his own I wanted to create a car that wasn’t “I’ve applied some modern and an entry-level 1.5 Laser. I’d love contemporaries come up with if back-catalogue hit. Of course, none quite so muscular and didn’t have as aerodynamic knowledge with the to get stuck into the interior, too – AA they were asked to reimagine a of these will get made. Or will they? much Mustang inf luence. new nose cone, a faster roof line and tartan seats and all.” ◊ JONATHAN WELLS Head of design, Morgan AA While gaining a first in transport design at the University of Huddersfield, Jonathan Wells enjoyed stints at TVR, Land Rover and Morgan. He went on to work at the Malvern company full time, becoming design boss in 2013. Major RR projects include last year’s bespoke SP1 special TT and the recently relaunched Aero 8. KK II SS VV EE 42 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 3 JUNE 2015 3 JUNE 2015 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 43 SHIRO NAKAMURA Chief creative officer, Nissan Since joining Nissan in 1999, Shiro Nakamura has overseen designs including the 350Z, Cube, Qashqai, Juke and GT-R, and now also leads the creative teams at Infiniti and Datsun. He cut his teeth at Isuzu and GM and owns first-generation examples of the Nissan Silvia and Fairlady Z. Austin-Healey 100 Named for its ton-plus top speed, the 100 was a Donald Healey-designed two-seater roadster powered and manufactured by Austin. Launched in 1953 at a price of £1063, it made 90bhp from its 2.6-litre four-cylinder engine and reached 60mph in 10.3sec. In 1956 it was replaced by the 2.6-litre, six-cylinder 100 Six, which then fathered the more famous Austin-Healey 3000. “I CHOSE AN Austin-Healey because the folding windscreen and the grille, designers; today’s cars have so many of its British heritage and because the which looks like a Japanese fan. The constraints with drag and lift. My brand isn’t used by anyone today,” car’s shape is very British, though. version is much more aggressive says Nakamura. “The 100 is “In the 1950s, aerodynamics were and has some aero treatment – I It’s Austin-Healey from interesting: I like the proportions, not a priority, which was nice for added carbonfibre ground-effect above, ground-hugging technology underneath, but kept sports car from below the top faithful to the original. “I kept the two-tone design and the integrated windscreen. The point is to respect the original design in “I spent lots of time modifying today’s environment. I added new the proportions and the lines. It things such as the headrests and LED produced a very interesting dialogue lights, using minimal modifications. with a younger designer who I My car is lower and wider but worked with on the project. I taught perhaps not longer. Cars were so him a lot, he studied a lot. It was a narrow in the 1950s – you can’t do very good process. that today. “Even after 50 or 100 years, the “The two-tone design – and 1950s will still be one of the greatest the character line it brings – is eras of car design. Designers and iconic on this car. It gives a kind engineers were free to express of casual, romantic feel, not too themselves. This changed in the serious. It ref lects the mindset of 1970s, and now we are always Nakamura explains post-War society, when cars became balancing emotion with social the genesis of his democratised. These were cars for responsibility. In the 1950s, they design to Webber normal people and had a lot of soul. were just having fun.” ◊ 44 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 3 JUNE 2015 3 JUNE 2015 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 45 Lotus Elise S1 Classics reimagined | The designers The lightweight, innovative and affordable Elise marked a return to Colin Chapman’s values when it was launched in 1996. Composite bodywork, an aluminium chassis and a 118bhp Rover K-series engine combined to rewrite the book on driver appeal. The updated S2 arrived in 2001 and preserves that uncompromising ethos to this day. “WHENEVER I WASHED my own purposeful and solid. The original Ferraris of the 1970s, such as the “We made so many references Elise, I was reminded of things that was less powerful than it looked, but Ferrari 512 S, with their experimental to motorcycles, lightness and didn’t turn out quite as I’d have liked, I’d fix that by installing something stick-on wings and f laps that stripping-out – that was the heart and I always wanted to put them like a Honda VTEC engine, and weren’t intrinsic to the main form. of the original. I’d like it even more right,” says Thomson. “My new maybe a sequential gearbox. For example, the Elise had little stripped-out. It’s a bit of a pipe dream, design might seem relatively modest “I really like what Singer does – aero corners moulded into the front but I’d love to make it happen.” L but that’s because I actually plan to modernising Porsche 911s in a classic bumper – I’ve used carbonfibre add- build this car for myself one day – a way – and I’ve tried to respectfully ons in their place. carbonfibre-bodied one-off based on modernise the Elise. The S1 was “There’s also a big Venturi element a Series 1. The Elise has some really strongly inf luenced by 1960s and at the back. We’d originally planned pure forms; I’d just like to clean it 1970s cars, and I still want it to something like that, but it didn’t fit up, make it neater and improve the look of that ilk. the budget. We’d also planned an quality and confidence of the design. “I didn’t want lots of big, angular, exposed chrome rollbar without a “I’ve lowered it by about 30mm, scoopy vents on the lower half, which rear window, but it let engine fumes widened it by 75-100mm and added many people are doing. Instead into the cabin. I’ve reinstated that bigger wheels so it looks more it references racing Porsches and arrangement for my design.