[HN Gopher] 50+ years of Japanese concept cars (2010)
___________________________________________________________________
50+ years of Japanese concept cars (2010)
Author : jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Score : 88 points
Date : 2022-05-12 13:39 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pinktentacle.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pinktentacle.com)
| beefman wrote:
| This predates my personal fav, the Toyota Kikai (2016)
|
| https://newsroom.toyota.eu/toyota-kikai/
| georgelyon wrote:
| My personal favorite concept is the Toyota Setsuna:
| https://www.topgear.com/car-news/concept/concepts-time-forgo...
| Loughla wrote:
| So now that laser cutters and cnc routers are sort of
| everywhere, I wonder if I can get the plans for that.
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| The Nissan Figaro has a lot of personality. Very FIAT like! I
| could see it being popular as an urban lifestyle car, similar to
| the BMW Mini.
| DrPhish wrote:
| Yes, it has quite a cult following. The production vehicle is
| almost identical to the concept car! Much closer than anything
| else on the list that I recognized
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| Wait they actually produced this one? Nice!
| kingcharles wrote:
| Isn't that a photo of the production car? I'm not a hardcore
| Figaro junkie, but I always got a smile seeing these on the
| roads in Britain. Where I lived every second person had one.
|
| https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/nissan-
| figaro-30...
| tomcam wrote:
| I'm trying to get myself not to buy one. It's $17,000, which
| means it's pretty much the same price after inflation as it was
| during production.
| grammers wrote:
| These look like taken from an old James Bond movie.
| dugditches wrote:
| Hmm guess author hadn't seen this
|
| https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/6J3Ae/s1/1989-toyota-rav-f...
| https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/zoG40/s1/1989-toyota-rav-f...
| https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/vAvJ6/s1/1989-toyota-rav-f...
| bluSCALE4 wrote:
| Pinktentacle is still around?!
| Teknoman117 wrote:
| the website is still up but it looks like it hasn't been
| updated in 11 years. Last post I could find was April, 2011.
| RajT88 wrote:
| Reminds me very much of the early days of Japanese import cars,
| where you'd hear the talking point both from Japanese
| spokespeople and reporters, "Japan is great at copying western
| products".
|
| Nobody says that today, do they?
|
| But these concept cares are really interesting! I see a lot of
| cars where at first glance I clock the car as a BMW M1, or a De
| Tomaso Pantera. Stick a huge wing on the Daihatsu TA-X80, and you
| could pass it off as a cheap Zonda.
| readingnews wrote:
| What seems always striking when looking at old concept cars is
| how many of them still have that "wow, I would totally drive that
| today, AND it would still look futuristic" quality.
|
| Geez car companies, show some guts. Build some of those and put
| them on the road. No new car today gets anyone I know excited,
| but some of those old photos do.
| jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
| Occasionally something close to a concept car gets to
| production.
|
| I had a Subaru SVX that looked like this one:
| https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2003_su...
|
| That car was designed by ItalDesign in Italy, a firm famous for
| many iconic sports and concept car designs. In the OP you see
| quite a few examples of their work. The inset windows are
| something of a signature of theirs, as it allows the upper roof
| area to be more sloped.
|
| Anyhow, it was a pretty striking car to drive around.
| Unfortunately the US version was only ever sold with a mushy
| and failure prone transmission. So despite having a rather nice
| 230 HP flat six engine, a wide stance, and a suspension that
| would be quite sporting when stiffened up, it never really ate
| into the low end BMW or Porsche market it was targeted at.
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| One big reason why cars look similar and alike are regulations.
| This is also a reason why SUVs get bigger and bigger - 2nd
| order effects of coupling permitted mileage to vehicle area.
| I'm wondering whether we'll get rid of obsolete regulations
| once cars are majority electric and have working accident-
| avoidance algorithms. I suspect not.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| Also just the reality of assembly lines. They prefer parts
| that can work on multiple models, fit existing
| machinery/process/chassis, etc... concept cars are one-off
| hand-built showpieces.
| segmondy wrote:
| You would only drive that because they were not mass produced
| and it would be unique. None of those look futuristic relative
| to today. Car companies are showing guts that's how we got to
| where we are. Compare cars of 50yrs ago and today, very
| different. More than design is safety, the body/frame has to be
| designed to be more tolerant of car crashes. Modern cars weigh
| much more, have more features and yet are much safer. It's hard
| to see increment innovation when it's happening right in your
| face. Think about it, modern economy cars could trash super
| cars of 50yrs ago.
| stardenburden wrote:
| Much safer? Only for the person inside the metal box.
| Pedestrian deatgs have been rising for years now, thanks to
| bigger and heavier cars.
|
| There has to be some middle ground for safety inside and on
| the outside.
| thethethethe wrote:
| Yeah well maybe those pesky pedestrians should stop being
| poor and buy a car. Problem solved
| linsomniac wrote:
| One very cool Japanese concept car that isn't in that list is the
| Isuzu VehiCROSS. It was built as a concept car (Isuzu VX), and
| then was pushed fairly quickly to production.
|
| One of the choices they made to speed it to production was to
| uses ceramic body panel molds; quicker and easier to create than
| steel molds, but they wear out quicker. The life of the
| production and replacement parts was limited by the life of these
| molds.
|
| The VehiCROSS, IMHO, was a pretty cool looking production car.
| And the concept they had for the topless version, VX-O2, was also
| super cool looking (aside: unlike the Nissan Murano which I loved
| the look of but the topless version I thought was one of the
| ugliest cars ever).
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isuzu_VehiCROSS
| baybal2 wrote:
| faruq wrote:
| Somehow reminds me of old Nokia phone before iPhone's era.
| schleck8 wrote:
| > Isuzu Super Heavy Dumptruck
|
| Epic
| canniballectern wrote:
| The late 2000s Mazda concepts are some of the most beautiful cars
| ever designed. Unfortunately the list left out my favorite, the
| Ryuga.
|
| https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1028135_mazda-ryuga-conc...
| tremon wrote:
| Is it just me, or do the concepts from the 90s onwards start
| looking more like toys and less like useful vehicles?
|
| I mean, there are exceptions like the Nissan AP-X or the Infinity
| Essence, but the rest doesn't look like something I'd even want
| to drive. Maybe that's more to do with the change from hand-
| drawing/photos to 3d rendering, I don't know. But 1990 is roughly
| where I changed from mainly "that'd be fun/interesting to drive"
| to mainly "I'd never want to drive that".
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-05-12 23:01 UTC)