Welcome to Car Porn Thursday!
Today we're bemoaning the general decline in design; that vertiginous drop in the standard of taste and style over the past fifty years, the self-evident proof of which can be seen by simply opening your eyes and gazing sadly at today's clothing, popular media, manners, politics, business and, of course, automobile design.
This is what a Maserati looks like. The company has lost the plot completely and today builds something that looks like everything else, only slightly uglier. And they're not alone, as future Thursdays will amply demonstrate.
10 comments:
I've thought about this over the years, Dive, and wonder whether it has anything to do with 1) the actual materials used to form the cars - steel v. plastic composites; 2) the way those materials are shaped - mandrels and metal benders v clay models and molds; 3) concern for aerodynamics has led to a basic shape that, in many cases is as anonymous as it is phallic.
I wonder, too, how much the degradation of automobile design has to do with sheer numbers of drivers - the ol' supply and demand conundrum. The numbers were basically confined to the infamous 1% of the population until 1924, when Henry Ford began to mass production of cars.
Even then, the highway system was haphazard, in the US anyway, until Eisenhower passed legislation in 1956 to build the Interstate highway system, which wasn't designated as complete until 1992. I almost think that the demand for housing, that suburban lifestyle image thing, also led to the increase in the number of cars, and, although there were remarkable cars designed and built, nobody wanted to look too "different." And wouldn't the energy embargo in 1973 have brought about the need for fuel-efficient, lighter and aerodynamic vehicles?
Yes, you have tiny roads not much wider than a footpath and you've always paid through the nose for fuel. In general, wouldn't the same notions apply?
If it were only happening in car design, Speedway, I'd put it down to the rise in computer-aided-design.
In everything from dress design to politics, however, the past five decades have seen a tragic rush toward mediocrity and the grey-beige colourless, tasteless and odourless middle ground that reeks of compromise and - as you say - the fear of being different.
As a designer I will always rebel against it. It sucks the joy out of life.
Well, overall, the lack of encouragement development of creative thought in our educational systems is at the root of the problem. There is virtually no value put on individuality of thought; what is wanted now is mindless cannon fodder of the sort that willingly carry bombs strapped to their bodies - and who send the sorts of e-mails I mentioned earlier.
I've gotten all kinds of grief for saying there is nothing in our daily lives that does not, somehow, begin with an artist, whether it is the patterns on the clothes we wear and the letter-forms we read. Everything.
Well-designed and well-made clothing is at a premium because the skills of seamstresses and tailors is a dying art, practiced only by the most determined designers and their lacemakers, cutters, embroiderers, and weavers, etc. I think the high-end designers only keep them on because they're trying to preserve the skills - they get more of their earnings from ready-to-wear. What most of us wear is not so much "clothing," as it is "body covers." In most schools, basic sewing skills aren't taught because most women work and don't have time to sew.
Just a wild notion, but couldn't this little issue be remedied somewhat with birth control? There isn't enough cotton, silk, wool, or leather in the world to cover the population. So we get polyester and all the leisure suits one could ever want to wear.
It affects the quality of our food, too, because only the well-to-do can afford good food, with the stuff we eat grown on a massive, corporate scale in part because there are so many people who need to be fed. Blame it on the corporate weinies extending as much as possible from one cob of corn, but there would be a lot more people going hungry.
Some folk say we're experiencing the End of Days; I think we're just experiencing the End of Style.
The world is going to die of boredom. Good thing, too. You read it here first.
Of course, if I succeed in my goal of wiping out the human race I'll have done the planet an inestimable favour.
I'll start with car designers. Up against the wall, dipshits!
Oh, and by the way: isn't that Maserati a thing of beauty?
Imagine Audrey Hepburn behind the wheel of something like that.
Then look out the window at the next car that drives by.
Then go buy a gun and start shooting.
Yeah? Well, I'm cold sober and ranty.
What'd ya drink?
And, sorry, yes, the car is damn gorgeous. I imagine Gregory Peck or George Clooney behind the wheel, though.
And then, there's that gorgeous black paint job. Nowadays the manufacturers try to make a gallon of paint cover an entire year's production, so the spray nozzles put on a layer of primer, then a bit of color, then a skinny film of lacquer, which peels within a year or two of manufacture.
I deleted my drunk and facetious comment just as you replied to it, Speedway.
I've not had a day off in three weeks now and I'm not likely to get one until Christmas morning so I hit the Remy when I got home this evening.
Now I'm just sleepy.
The Maz, by the way, is midnight blue (look closely at the highlights when you blow the photo up); a classic combo with tan leather. This'll have a lovely hand-applied nitrocellulose lacquer, too; none of your modern plastic crap. Panels hand-beaten over carved wooden formers. Engine hand-built and tuned by men who cared about performance. All wrapped up in a body styled by a genius.
The Corporations have truly sent us straight down to hell in a mass-produced handcart.
Knowing it's midnight blue makes it even prettier, Dive. Ooooh.
I wish I could help with the time off bit, but just watch the Remy. I want some chocolate ice cream.
oxoxoxOXOXOX - meh. :-D
The mass-produced handcart will fall apart before our carcasses got to Hell.
That is one sweeeet car!
I agree that it seems like The End of Style. Too many shades of beige, grey, and other nondescript colors.
Between this and the US election, we need a little "ventilating"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymVrVSOMC1g
You're right, Speedway. It probably won't even reach purgatory before the wheels fall off.
My thoughts entirely, Vanda.
Ah, thank you so much, Ms.M. My breakfast is immeasurably improved by your recommended listening material.
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