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is this the most beautiful car ever made?
Posted by zeno333 in
29 Jul 2012 — 9:06am
29 Jul 2012 — 9:06am
It's the Danish "Zenvo ST1 Supercar". Only 15 will ever be made, and 3 will be coming to the US....Web site with galleries and other info here....
http://www.zenvoautomotive.com/cars/gallery/
If the most beautiful typeface were to become a car, would this be it?
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29 Jul 2012 — 11:12am
Hhm, we’ve all seen this before in car design. Nothing breathtaking here. For beautiful cars look at Alpine Renault or Lotus Super 7, Citroën DS and much more coming to mind …
29 Jul 2012 — 11:25am
BMW 507. Period.
hhp
29 Jul 2012 — 11:40am
Fiat 600 Multipla.
If it were a font, it would probably be Microgramma.
29 Jul 2012 — 12:24pm
Georgeous. What about Triumph TR4?
29 Jul 2012 — 12:26pm
-1, Offtopic
29 Jul 2012 — 2:04pm
denmark
I prefer their furniture.
29 Jul 2012 — 12:36pm
-1, Offtopic
+1
29 Jul 2012 — 12:53pm
In terms of contemporary car design, I think the Bristol Fighter T is a lot more beautiful than the Zenvo. It manages to pull off that clever trick of referencing the design tradition of the earlier Bristols (in turn based on pre-war BMW), while clearly displaying things that are possible with modern materials and techniques that were not in Bristol Cars' heyday.
[Laurence Penney and I drove from Bristol to Bath in his 1960s Bristol in June. Very nice car.)
29 Jul 2012 — 12:58pm
If this is about elegance, I’d prefer something like this.
29 Jul 2012 — 1:03pm
@Andreas Then you might also enjoy Borgward Isabella Coupé TS:
29 Jul 2012 — 1:10pm
Contemporary and having more self confidence in its design is another British car: http://www.astonmartin.com/en/cars/vanquish
It’s typeface is Optima – a bit conservative?
29 Jul 2012 — 1:24pm
yes, the Borgward is very nice. as this is.
or that.
29 Jul 2012 — 1:48pm
@ J. Weltin:
Aesthetics aside, though, it appears that the Vanquish does not use ordinary tires, but instead requires special tires that rest on a larger wheel, which are no doubt more expensive.
Of course, that is unlikely to be a significant concern for those in that car's intended market.
EDIT: Checking at a site called "Size My Tire", the Vanquish tires have an aspect ratio of 40%; this was shared by the first other type of car that I checked, a Chevrolet Corvette, although a Ford Econoline van had tires with an aspect ratio of 75%.
I hadn't realized there were so many different sizes of tire; I had thought there were only a very few standard sizes, one for cars, and bigger ones for trucks and buses.
But the rear tires on a Vanquish are wider than the front tires, which prevents normal tire rotation.
29 Jul 2012 — 2:32pm
In the category of the Borgward, Wartburg, etc. I like this Humber, one of which is parked on my street. Of course, these are all much more humble cars than the supercar class with which the thread began.
Craig, while the subject of cars is categorically off-topic, I'd argue that getting a sense of the kind of cars that appeal to people who are also typophiles isn't any more off-topic than any other kind of design. Insofar as type design can be considered a branch of industrial design -- Briem first suggested to me this when he visited us in Vancouver many years ago --, this topic could be considered more on-topic than the graphic design talk here. Type and automobiles both have functional jobs to perform that are in part independent of their aesthetics (although their beauty may result from features that make them, respectively, more readable or more aerodynamic).
29 Jul 2012 — 2:44pm
What's really strange about tire measurements (at least in the US) is that they contain three different systems: inches (for the inside diameter), millimeters (for the width) and a percentage (for the ratio of "height" (inside to outside circles) to width).
John: I can credit Miles Newlyn to opening my eyes to interesting parallels between automotive (and nautical*) design and type design. And let's not forget where bézier curves come from! :-)
* In fact he's heavily into boats now!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69998588@N00/
hhp
29 Jul 2012 — 2:40pm
I really don't like the AM Vanquish: it looks too much like an American muscle car, all massive body and tiny head space. I prefer the more classic AM lines of the DB9 Coupe, although in general I don't think AM have made anything really elegant since the DB5.
29 Jul 2012 — 2:52pm
Andreas, I took this photo in Yerevan in June:
As he drove past the driver gave me a smug "Yes, I know" look. :-)
hhp
29 Jul 2012 — 3:37pm
Yeah BMW 507 or MG A would be my choices. I'd settle for a Ferrari 250 though at a push
29 Jul 2012 — 4:23pm
Bugatti Veyron
Lamborghini Jalpa
Lamborghini Countach
Lamborghini Aventador
29 Jul 2012 — 6:50pm
John Hudson....Yes, I mention the car since I feel that car more than any other I have seen, has certain curves to it that make me think of typefaces....It is not "just" a car, just like a particular style of the small letter "a" is not just the letter "a". :) ;) Curves, thats the idea.
29 Jul 2012 — 11:18pm
@John You’re right about the AM Vanquish, the American muscle car look is a design feature that many modern cars share, unfortunately. Yet, i prefer the Vanquish over the new Porsche designs, which to my eyes are all too blunt and fat. The most beautiful Porsche was the 356, after that it never became the same.
So far, my type incomes are not enough for any of those cars, that’s why i stick to collect bicycles. Maybe one far day a Triumph or BMW 507 …
30 Jul 2012 — 11:23am
Personally, I think the X1/9 looks better than the Zenvo. Wouldn't say no to a Saab Sonett appearing with my name on, though.
30 Jul 2012 — 12:52pm
For me the two most beautiful cars ever made are the Citroën DS mentioned earlier and the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato.
30 Jul 2012 — 1:05pm
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with his 1964 MGB Roadster :-)
30 Jul 2012 — 1:08pm
Wow....It's James Bond!!!! ;) ;)
30 Jul 2012 — 2:04pm
@dezcom
On the wheels of fortune …
30 Jul 2012 — 2:56pm
That Zagato is pretty amazing - you can feel the tension between form and function.
hhp
30 Jul 2012 — 3:03pm
Poor man's James Bond ;-)
and the real spoked wheels were made to spin for luck (but were hard to keep balanced).
30 Jul 2012 — 3:36pm
Isn't that taken behind your Newport RI mansion ;) ;) ;)
30 Jul 2012 — 4:43pm
spin for luck?
30 Jul 2012 — 5:16pm
Yes, the DB4 Zagato is lovely, and it reminded me of something I loved as a kid: the Lister 'knobbly bodies'.
30 Jul 2012 — 5:25pm
Actually, it is very Near Newport RI. There was definitely no mansion, though :-)
30 Jul 2012 — 9:22pm
These two cars are tied for my #1 choice ...
n.
30 Jul 2012 — 9:43pm
Hrant, after considering it for a couple of days, I've decided that the pointy thing on the hood of the BMW 507 just ruins the whole car for me.
31 Jul 2012 — 12:38am
Hahahahaha! Well, nowadays there are more things on several parts that ruin the whole BMW range.
31 Jul 2012 — 8:56am
John, fair enough. In case it matters though (to me it's central) that element isn't just decoration - it's an air intake, for that amazing V8.
http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/263913,2542/1957-BMW-507_photo.aspx
hhp
31 Jul 2012 — 9:16am
Normal car: Alfa Romeo Guilia
Super Car: Jaguar D-Type
31 Jul 2012 — 9:22am
Oh, and the Outrageous car: the Lancia Stratos
31 Jul 2012 — 9:36am
Laurence's Bristol
[Note hole beneath the grill for the handcrank handle.]
31 Jul 2012 — 10:32am
If you want something very functional, then how about the only car (that I know of) that could ever say its name: The Trabant?
31 Jul 2012 — 10:40am
I like the curves of car bodies from around 1952, whether Caddy, Jag or Roller.
They look good driving down main street, catching reflections.
My soft spot for things of that era may be because it’s my vintage too.
I don’t think those shapes have had much influence on my type designs, though.
I’ve long had a fascination with the wedge shape (mid-seventies: Countach, Esprit, Bricklin &c.), and have tried to implement it in type designs over the years, but never got beyond sketches and rough prototypes.
31 Jul 2012 — 11:13am
Try the Subaru XT for wedge.
31 Jul 2012 — 10:31pm
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Lancia_Belna_Eclipse_...
31 Jul 2012 — 10:51pm
I’d say this looks fairly typographic.
1 Aug 2012 — 4:41am
Maybe back to contemporary cars:
What typeface would be Renault’s Twizy electro car: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy ?
Which from its design is clearly derived from the avantgarde Smart.
1 Aug 2012 — 6:26am
Emigre's Suburban!
hhp
1 Aug 2012 — 11:50am
Living in a shoe is one thing, but driving one...
1 Aug 2012 — 1:32pm
These concepts may not have fully reached the US yet, but if you want to be mobile in cities with a car these electric cars are the future. Reduce to the max. The opposite to flourished types with hundreds of swash and ligature alternates. No Zapfino, the modern Futura …
1 Aug 2012 — 4:58pm
They may be the future, but I wouldn't want to drive one of those dinky little cars in today's traffic. In a serious accident you'd get squashed like a bug.
1 Aug 2012 — 4:59pm
If everyone drove one, it would not be a problem.