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As someone who aspired to write about cars for a living largely because of the cool concept cars from my youth, I’m sorry to report that today’s moonshot design projects no longer get me goin’. At least, very few of them do. Have I grown jaded over the years? Or are concept cars not what they used to be? What if both are true? Or neither?
I know I’m not alone in feeling like this. It’s a conversation we have fairly often in The Drive‘s Slack. And when a topic is discussed so much in our group chats, we invoke Slack Law and write about it. (The idea here is that if we find it interesting enough to talk about time and again, then other people may find it interesting, too.)
Well, our Editor-in-Chief Kyle Cheromcha took it a step further and made a 30-minute film on concept cars, featuring five of automotive’s most influential designers.
From first to last: Alex Shen (Toyota CALTY), Jon Ikeda (Acura), Tom Peters (General Motors), Ralph Gilles (Stellantis), and Sangyup Lee (Hyundai and Genesis)
The latest video on The Drive‘s YouTube channel features Alex Shen from Toyota’s CALTY Design Research Lab, who penned the FT-1 concept that became the new Supra; Jon Ikeda, former head of Acura design who styled the front-engine NSX concept; Tom Peters, the former head of performance car design at GM who designed the Indy Corvette, the 2007 Camaro concept, and more; Ralph Gilles, global head of design for Stellantis; and Sangyup Lee, the head of design for Hyundai and Genesis.
Droves of internet commenters lament that concept cars are “uninspired,” but spend time around the folks who draw, sculpt, and build them, and your opinion may change. Kyle’s hunch that something else has caused this vibe shift is the thrust of the video, and having watched the clip in its entirety, I agree. (And no, I’m not brown-nosing. Promise!)
I encourage you to hear from these design pros directly, not so you can buy into some corporate apologetic that blames less exciting concepts on shrunken budgets, but so you can get a glimpse into the process from people who devote their life’s work to creative expression. As you can probably guess, it’s not easy for said creativity to live in the same world as engineering constraints and safety regulations. But designers—at least, the ones we spoke with—make it work because they love cars like you and me.
And after listening to Kyle’s full chat with Jon Ikeda on The Drivecast, I’m inclined to believe he loves cars even more than I do.
Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com
From running point on new car launch coverage to editing long-form features and reviews, Caleb does some of everything at The Drive. And he really, really loves trucks.
