There's Hope with Lutz
07-10-2002, 06:16 PM
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There's Hope with Lutz
Below are quotations from two AutoWeek articles available at their web site. If true, there's hope.
By the way, good design was illustrated with a photo of a 63 Vett coupe.
"Now, with several Lutz-inspired concept and production cars available for inspection, the look that GM's product guru prefers is emerging: sculpted, aerodynamic lines stretched smoothly over a muscular frame. Add a stance anchored by substantial wheels pushed to the edges of the chassis. . .In working with Reed on the Cunningham, Lutz emphasized classic proportion and stance, the sense "that it stands on its chassis well," Reed said. Lutz has said he favors tumblehome - a design term for an inward slope from the beltline to the roof - rather than a slab-sided look. He also believes a vehicle looks better when wheels extend to the edges of the body.
In the same speech in which he made his angry kitchen appliances comment, Lutz gave a rationale for his taste for aerodynamic shapes. Speaking to the Automotive News World Congress in January 2001, Lutz said "cars, like birds or fish, are bodies that move through a fluid. And the fact is you don't see many birds or fish with flat, snowplow front ends, faceted eyes and jagged protuberances."
In other words, Reed says, Lutz wants vehicles designed for motion. That leads to cleaner design and an updating of classic automotive lines.
"That's why he's against odd cladding with hash marks," Reed said. "Let the proportions speak for themselves."
Though Lutz concedes he is not a designer, he talks the talk. At the AutoWeek Design Forum in Detroit in January, Lutz summarized four traits of great automotive design.
1. Proportions
Start with the basics. "Are the length/height/width relationships such that an elegant vehicle can be created?" Lutz says. "Does the vehicle exude strength, grace, stability or whatever is desired?"
2. Lateral overhang
Lutz contends that there are frequently missed cues that doom vehicles to lackluster design. Chief among them: Lateral overhang. That's when the body appears to be too wide for the tread width. "It's a fatal flaw and one that even gorgeously shaped sheet metal can't overcome," Lutz says. "We all remember the Caprice."
So what should you shoot for? "The body," Lutz says, "should look like it was stretched tautly over the chassis."
3. Tumblehome
Tumblehome refers to the incline slope of the sides of a vehicle. It's a nautical term adopted by auto designers and refers to the slope of the sides of a vehicle. On some vehicles, the Pontiac Aztek, for example, you may barely notice tumblehome. On others, it's more pronounced.
Lutz contends that tumblehome enhances the look of a vehicle. "Here, especially if we are prisoners of a relatively narrow platform, there is frequently pressure to achieve maximum package by increasing shoulder width and lateral headroom," Lutz says. "While everything must be a compromise, I believe that creating a slab-sided, non-tumble-home car is a road to disaster."
4. Details, details
You can't afford to overlook the little things.
"One of the huge customer-attracting features of recent Japanese and German cars is the superb execution of both the exterior and the interior," Lutz says. "Gaps, parallelism and flushness of panels must be world-class for a design to really work. Hemming must be sharp and precise." "
:yesnod:
By the way, good design was illustrated with a photo of a 63 Vett coupe.
"Now, with several Lutz-inspired concept and production cars available for inspection, the look that GM's product guru prefers is emerging: sculpted, aerodynamic lines stretched smoothly over a muscular frame. Add a stance anchored by substantial wheels pushed to the edges of the chassis. . .In working with Reed on the Cunningham, Lutz emphasized classic proportion and stance, the sense "that it stands on its chassis well," Reed said. Lutz has said he favors tumblehome - a design term for an inward slope from the beltline to the roof - rather than a slab-sided look. He also believes a vehicle looks better when wheels extend to the edges of the body.
In the same speech in which he made his angry kitchen appliances comment, Lutz gave a rationale for his taste for aerodynamic shapes. Speaking to the Automotive News World Congress in January 2001, Lutz said "cars, like birds or fish, are bodies that move through a fluid. And the fact is you don't see many birds or fish with flat, snowplow front ends, faceted eyes and jagged protuberances."
In other words, Reed says, Lutz wants vehicles designed for motion. That leads to cleaner design and an updating of classic automotive lines.
"That's why he's against odd cladding with hash marks," Reed said. "Let the proportions speak for themselves."
Though Lutz concedes he is not a designer, he talks the talk. At the AutoWeek Design Forum in Detroit in January, Lutz summarized four traits of great automotive design.
1. Proportions
Start with the basics. "Are the length/height/width relationships such that an elegant vehicle can be created?" Lutz says. "Does the vehicle exude strength, grace, stability or whatever is desired?"
2. Lateral overhang
Lutz contends that there are frequently missed cues that doom vehicles to lackluster design. Chief among them: Lateral overhang. That's when the body appears to be too wide for the tread width. "It's a fatal flaw and one that even gorgeously shaped sheet metal can't overcome," Lutz says. "We all remember the Caprice."
So what should you shoot for? "The body," Lutz says, "should look like it was stretched tautly over the chassis."
3. Tumblehome
Tumblehome refers to the incline slope of the sides of a vehicle. It's a nautical term adopted by auto designers and refers to the slope of the sides of a vehicle. On some vehicles, the Pontiac Aztek, for example, you may barely notice tumblehome. On others, it's more pronounced.
Lutz contends that tumblehome enhances the look of a vehicle. "Here, especially if we are prisoners of a relatively narrow platform, there is frequently pressure to achieve maximum package by increasing shoulder width and lateral headroom," Lutz says. "While everything must be a compromise, I believe that creating a slab-sided, non-tumble-home car is a road to disaster."
4. Details, details
You can't afford to overlook the little things.
"One of the huge customer-attracting features of recent Japanese and German cars is the superb execution of both the exterior and the interior," Lutz says. "Gaps, parallelism and flushness of panels must be world-class for a design to really work. Hemming must be sharp and precise." "
:yesnod:
07-14-2002, 09:11 AM
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Re: There's Hope with Lutz (I Bin Therbefor)
He says the right stuff - We will see. Remember - We all have choices, go with the C6 if you like it, keep your current Vette or move on to something else. Enough said -
[Modified by repvette02, 7:13 AM 7/14/2002]
[Modified by repvette02, 7:13 AM 7/14/2002]