Photo submitted

E BUICK Skylark escaped the corporate filtering process at the design level, as GM designers
ached a bird-like beak in the froni and awkward angled side profile.

‘ar designs of the past
hat tte logic & taste

tunders of the past the mothers of all misadventure

VERDRIVE

TERE’S A lot more to
ing a car designer than just
awing, sketching, and ren-
ring a car.
A designer has to be able to pre-
t what trends will become impor-
t three or four years down the
id, and at the same time have a

ali understanding of the technical

Anitations and marketing influences.

j Ineffect, he or she has to be abie
read a crystal ball and say, “This
¥ What the consumers will buy in
he future!”

Despite that daunting challenge.
pany talented car designers have
pecessfully introduced unique,
jovative models to the market -—-

He Mazda Miata is one such exam-

Be — that have turned the automo-

Eve industry on fire.

But there are also plenty of “ugly
#Ckling” cases in the past. Perhaps
a result of too much influence
om the money-driven management
Short-sighted marketing people.
atever the reason, these blunder

signs will never be forgotten.
Remember the 1977 AMC

cer?
The idea of creating a roomy.

ry compact car was a good one, but

»mehow the form-follows-function

inciple didn't work out in this car.
With a fat, chubby rear-end and
hunky-looking centre-pillar. the
acer looked more like an over-
eight flying saucer than a passen-
T car,
AMC's other entries didn't fare

much better. Like the AMC Gremlin
coupe, which looked as if it was cre-
ated by chopping a four-door car in

Then there was the AMC
Matador, a car that will probably
remain in my memory as one of the
ugliest cars ever produced. It fea-
tured a strange, rectangular nose that
stuck out of the front like a tree
stump.

Tronically, the two-door version
of the Matador looked completely
difterent and was actually quite
pleasant to look at (it was featured as
a hybrid car-plane in one of the
James Bond movies).

Anyhow, enough AMC bashing.

For the most part Ford’s cars
were, and still are, well styied. But I
never liked the design of the Ford
Pinto, even if our family’s yellow
one didn’t blow up like a bomb (my
mother had one in 1979),

The same goes for the 1977-80
Lincoln Versailles, perhaps the tack-
iest car ever to appear in Ford show-
rooms. Based on the faithful Ford
Granada, it was brought to the mar-
ket in a rush to respond to Cadillac’s
successful Seville line.

Despite its Lincoln-famous
waterfall chrome grill and heavily-
massaged roofline, its Granada roots

See Blunder page 27

REGENCY

Sure! The People Get Seat
Belts... but what about US!

Please be a responsible pet
owner and provide your dog
with a protective kennel
fastened to the centre of
your vehicle. Better yel,
leave your dog

at home. Sci)
Set

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