What has gone on before:
<<<<<<I bet that in three or four years retro will be retro and all those
cars will look well out of date. The MGF, on the other hand, has timeless
lines, rather like the 911 has.
Cheers,
Philip Raby
Editor, MG World>>>>>>
Philip,
I don't want you to think that I enjoy arguing with you on this (I may or
may not. I will never tell) but I still detest the use of the word "retro"
to describe a design that takes cues from earlier designs. As a design
engineer for many of my adult years, I have been fortunate enough to be
granted a few patents. The most useful of these is for a special
mechanical linkage that allows easy adjustment combined with accurate
location from a minimum of parts. I am not a creative giant by any means
but I have been around mechanical things all of my life. My design was a
combination of several designs that I had seen in the past including an
outboard motor throttle linkage and an adjustment on an old horse drawn
John Deere corn planter. The point is that just because something was a
good idea a long time ago doesn't automatically make it out of date and
stupid now.
You mention the timeless design of the 911 and how the F hopes to be one of
these. I agree that creating such a design is the goal of most designers
but, unfortunately, the only thing that can decide whether you are
successful is time. Porsche themselves have attempted to replace the
antiquated 911 several times with new, more modern cars that were said to
have "timeless appeal." Time has passed its own judgement on the 924 and
928 and she has not been kind.
I read the interview in MG World (good read in general- almost worth the
effort to find a copy on a newsstand ;-) with the F designer. When talking
about a possible F freshening he said that the design was one that works as
a whole and that to change a feature or two would spoil it more than
improve it. I remember Syd Enever saying that about 40 years ago about
another timeless design- the MGA.
I know that introducing the MGA again would be stupid but there is nothing
wrong with looking back into a marques past for inspiration for a new
design. Porsche seems to have done this successfully with the Boxter as
has Jaguar with the XK8. BMW has been less successful with the Z3 but then
there idea of inspiration was to graft a kidney grill and Buick ports onto
a car of questionable aesthetic value. Designing a new car with an
influence from MG's past (like the Boxster and XK8) would be a good move in
my opinion. Grafting the oval MGA portals onto a car and calling it a
tribute to the past would be stupid and a mistake. Heritage is important.
If this were not true, why would Rover nee BMW even want to resurrect the
MG name? For better or worse and whether we want to admit it the new MG
will play heavily on heritage, memories, and emotion. This is its
advantage in the marketplace over other less storied marques so why not
build off from this. Sports cars are about emotions now days since almost
any car has capabilities far beyond what can be reasonably used on the
street.
We have all read the press fall over themselves to praise VW for going back
to their roots with the new Beetle. I fully expect the Beetle 2 to be a
commercial success and that it will have a long and successful production
run. For better or worse, these cars we love are considered fun cars now
and the people that can afford them new tend to be older and looking to
recapture something- youth, hair, drug use, free sex, whatever. MG has a
distinct advantage to VW in this arena in that old MG's were actually good
looking. Why not use that.
Lecture mode off.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA
It costs no more to build a good looking car than it does to build an ugly
one- Sir William Lyons
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