Good Old Valves

Volkswagen Beetle Rally (2011)

In Iran, the good people at the Beetle Club apparently do this every year.

A 220 mile race in Beetles, with some snow to give the pilots a proper scare. Fantastic, I’d say count me in! If I had a Beetle and lived in Iran.

Volkswagen Beetle Superleggera (2012)

VW really took the idea of making small cars even lighter a step further. Built entirely with carbon fiber, even a small child can lift this new-vintage pocket rocket.

No, not really, it’s just an awesome upside down house in Austria. Still, made me laugh. :)

“Mil Milhas” event, probably around 1973, in Brazil.

This is the weirdest looking VW Passat I’ve seen racing, looking more like a mad prototype than an adapted road car. Which it probably isn’t.

João Neto’s Volkswagen Beetle during the Mil Milhas, the brazilian racing event during the 70’s.

Volkswagen Beetle and a brief note on automotive design.

Yesterday I began reading the great book “Designing for Emotion” by the awesome Aarron Walter (from the “A Book Apart” Series, if you’re an interface designer/developer, buy it today, it’s that good) and found an interesting example on design personality where Aarron explained the popularity of the VW Beetle.

I’ll share this bit with you:

“The Volkswagen Beetle, released in 1938 and produced
until 2003, is the best selling design in automotive history. Its
distinctly human design contributed to its success.

Conceived as the “People’s Car,” the anthropomorphized design makes it more than a car for the people: it’s a car that is a person. The round headlights denote eyes while its scoopshapedhood smiles at us, personifying the baby-face bias.

Though originally designed for aerodynamics not personality,
the Beetle’s “face” conveys a perpetually hopeful and fun attitude
that made it easy for generations to connect with, despite
dramatic cultural changes over seven decades.

That smile that greets its driver reflects emotion and establishes
a specific kind of relationship. It’s hard not to return a
smile even if it’s coming from an object. Around that simple
interaction we’ve constructed an emotional persona for
this car (…)”

Aarron is no car designer, but he explains exactly what’s wrong with car design today. With digital interfaces and overall product design walking towards the user’s needs (which is great), car design on the other hand is becoming something for the masses, kitsch, if you may. Every new car wants to be just like the iPhone, and the “baby-face bias” is getting a bit more lost each day. Most modern cars have no persona today, and you know what? It’s our fault.

(if you reblog without this block of text, I’ll command all pidgeons to do their business on your bonnet.)

Volkswagen Bettle (Maggiolino, to be locally correct)

It’s not always easy to tell where art begins and a car ends, especially on photographs. It’s even harder to cross that bridge yourself and create a timeless moment where both meet.

archifra has managed this quite beautifully. You don’t come across moments like this too often — to stare at a car and feel that you’re staring at something else. Something else entirely.

An autoshow in 1949, Germany.

She finds class to be reasonably priced.

A shelter withthin a shelter.

— via loudpop

Volkswagen Beetle being taken care of and loved by the dealer, back in the 60’s.

Credits to the Old Motor.