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Motor 1
6 hours ago
- Automotive
- Motor 1
The McLaren P1's Designer Thinks the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale Is 'Stunning'
Believe it or not, Frank Stephenson , the famed car designer, is still gushing about the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. The Italian automaker revealed the car nearly two years ago, pledging to build just 33 examples. It's a faithful tribute to the 33 Stradale of the late 1960s , considering the quagmire of modern safety constraints, and it's a car that Stephenson calls one of the "most stunning" of the last few years. The Stradale revival has retro-inspired sheet metal and a mid-engine layout, just like the original. However, despite Stephenson's praise, he reveals to Top Gear the car is "still not perfect," and that there's "room for improvement." He criticizes the 33's chunkier rear-end design , noting the license plate's distracting location and other styling flubs. Stephenson praises the front-end design of the Alfa , however, calling it "fantastic," although he questions whether the headlights should have been rounder. Alfa revealed the 33 Stradale in August 2023 , even though it had sold all of them nearly a year earlier. The car is available with two powertrains— a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 engine or a battery-electric setup. Alfa never revealed the split between the two choices, but he admitted that it had " just a few EVs " in development despite it being the more powerful option. The EV version produces 750 horsepower and could sprint to 60 miles per hour in less than three seconds. The V-6, meanwhile, makes 620 hp, sending power to the rear wheels. Alfa announced it delivered the first example last December. And if you want the company to make more cars like the 33 Stradale, you're going to have to buy more SUVs first . Here's More Alfa Romeo News: Alfa Romeo Could Delay Its Most Important Car Alfa Romeo's Next Quadrifoglio Models Will 'Surprise You' Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Source: Top Gear Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
Top Gear
30-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Aston Martin DB12 - long-term review - Report No:5 2025
Which got me thinking: is there a way to make the subjective quandary of beauty objective? Could beauty in cars – particularly modern Aston Martins – be measured, if not by tape, then perhaps by involuntary public reaction? Because, if that's the case, the current crop of Astons (and the DB12, given my firsthand experience) are some of the most beautiful cars on the road. Beauty, famously, is in the eye of the beholder. But ever since I've been behind the wheel of our Aston Martin DB12, there seems to have been an increase in beholders. They pop up like wet gremlins, offering their admiration in car parks, at petrol stations, pulling out their phones at traffic lights and shouting 'That's GAWWWJUSSS!' from cab windows down the M4. 'The DB11 was a striking car, but the 12 is dominantly striking. It's got an appropriate grille that supports the increased drivability – more cooling, more aero – but it's also a more stately object now. It's more of that noble rogue you'd expect. Not the answer I came for – and it made me wonder if it was going to be a wasted four-hour round trip. But then Reichman opened up, insisting that car design is less about diktats and more about seduction with the DB12. But what are people actually reacting to? The shape? The proportions? The colour? The badge? Or is there something less tangible at play? To try and qualify my very unscientific survey, I took our long-term DB12 back to its birthplace at the Gaydon factory, parked it alongside its immediate family – a Vantage, a DBX 707, and the all-new, even more pin-up-worthy Vanquish – and asked the man behind the lines, Aston Martin's chief creative officer Marek Reichman, if he could explain why strangers stop mid-sentence to stare. 'As a designer, as a creative – all of us, the entire company – we're existing in two worlds,' Reichman explained. 'We're in the automotive space, yes, but we're also in the luxury world. The world of being noticed.' And being noticed matters. If you drive an Aston Martin, people look. 'They are consciously thinking about who you are. You've got to be conscious. We're designing and engineering within that context.' The idea, it turns out, wasn't to make the DB12 more beautiful. It was to make it more present. 'It's simply wearing the right clothes,' he said. 'It's presence. It's proportion. It's elegance. It's stature. That's the DNA of our brand.' Marek is fantastically articulate and avoids designer jargon. The DB12 is, after all, built on an Aston Martin platform – not a shared one, not a group hand-me-down, not something diluted by cross-brand committees. That, Reichman said, gives it more room to breathe. More room to wear its clothes. 'All of those platforms, whether it's from DB9 onwards, it's an Aston Martin platform – not a group platform we've had to derivatise,' he explained. 'We have the ability to control proportion, working with engineering to control performance from day one. And that's been fundamental – the makeup of our brand. That gives us the ability to define, particularly on Vantage. I think it's one of the best-proportioned cars in its class. DB12 is close, but nothing comes near Vanquish. When you're rare, you can play more with proportional change.' According to the man with the pens, it's that phrase – proportional change – that gets to the core of why the DB12 pulls eyes out of sockets. 'It's a wider car. More punch. The nose is more upright, more dominant. Taller. All the fenders, front and rear, are pushed out from the body – gives it more room to play with.' Marek makes a sculptor's gesture as he speaks, curving his fingers around invisible haunches. 'We have a massive benefit. That distance – that pressing distance for a rear arch – it's immense. Porsche, Mercedes, Bentley? They don't come close. What these new iterations have done is given more room for the clothing. It's what every show car does. Only we can actually do it.' But the kerb appeal is also down to pedestrians seeing the car from the right angles, at the right distance – because the way we view cars isn't up close but from afar. Not through detail, but silhouette. 'We never design within three metres,' he said. 'Always 20 metres away. We sketch on A2 paper. You need to understand the aesthetic in two dimensions to deploy it in three. You're not discovering the idea in 3D – you've already nailed it in 2D.' So where do the ideas begin? I wondered what was on the DB12's mood board – and was surprised by the route-one response. 'With DB12, believe it or not, it was James Bond. It was more about elegance, stature. Less of the rogue, more of the gentleman.' The car, in his mind, is a character. A type. Like a cast list on wheels. For the other cars, there are more. 'One of them was Idris Elba. Another was a buffalo. A bull. A large shark. And... I can't remember the other one,' he said, laughing. 'But the point is, we start with personality. We use characters to help the designers start their designing.' I asked what happens when engineering gets in the way – when the chassis says no, or the finance team wants it smaller, or the emissions team wants more vents. Reichman smiled. 'We have the benefit of controlling the platform,' he said, 'so when the engineers say 'better turn-in, three millimetres forward', we can actually do it.' The level of agility and influence, he pointed out, hasn't existed since the David Brown days. 'Then a bunch of stuff happened,' he said, dryly. 'But now it's back.' Credit, he noted, goes in part to Lawrence Stroll – not just for the money, but for bringing a kind of fashion-world rigour to branding. 'If you're a luxury brand – and we coined the term ultra luxury – you need consistency,' Reichman said. 'An artist may vary, but their expression is consistent. Rothko is always a Rothko. And our customers say, 'I own an Aston Martin', then they say which one.' So, I asked him if he were in one of Aston's new, super-jazzy NYC-inspired speccing pods at Gaydon, how would he spec a DB12? 'My next one's ultramarine black. Very dark blue with a black wheel and a dark night interior. Popped with a dark red calliper and red stitch. It's quite subtle, but not black. In sunlight, you see the blue. It's elegant and sporting. More dark denim jeans than dinner suit.' Quite the opposite of what he's rocked up to work in today – an orange over orange (is that orange squared?) DBX. But Marek again believes you should wear your cars like a wardrobe – especially in this ultra high-net-worth world – where, if you're going to a cocktail party at a beach club, you'll wear something slightly different to a night at the opera. And with our cars, you can do exactly that. Your character remains the same, but you can tune and tweak it for what you want. We spoke just as Trump introduced sweeping tariffs, another reminder that like it or not, cars are now entangled in the wider theatre of politics, policy, technology, and power. How does this affect Marek's thinking? 'I'm conscious of everything on a global scale that happens, because I have to be. As a designer. We're a respected brand – and that means we have to be conscious of everything that exists.' But that context, Reichman insists, comes with a unique advantage. 'We have a massive, massive bonus point in that we're a love brand. We are loved by many – we are. You get the thumbs up, not the finger up, when you drive our cars. People let you out in traffic in London.' You can't disappear in an Aston Martin. 'If you want to drive into London without being papped by a kid on a street corner, forget it. Because you will be papped in that car.' That visibility, he says, brings a responsibility. And part of that consciousness is a long view. 'We've made 113 years' worth of cars. 125,000 in total. And 96 per cent of them still exist.' His voice brightens slightly. 'So from that perspective, I'm creating a future collectible – not a throwaway object. So what I have to design – what we have to design – is something that, 50 years from now, people will still respect. Still appreciate. Still see as an object of beauty.' Well, if the cab drivers and beholders are anything to go by – with their shouts of 'That's GAWWWJUSSS!' – he's doing a pretty good job.
Forbes
26-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Hyundai Aims To Win Through Design; The 2026 Palisade Ups The Game
The 2026 Hyundai Palisade Not all that long ago buyers looked at Hyundai and sister company Kia, wondering 'what's the difference?' and didn't see a clear answer. Sedans and SUVs built by the two brands shared (and still do) platforms, powertrains, and technology. They differed in design, but subtly; it was easy to see the shared DNA. About that time the parent company Hyundai Motor Company set a new path to become a global player and drive future technology. This meant getting out of the budget rut that squeezes margins and can diminish reputations. The goal was set to turn the brands into premium carmakers. This is where Hyundai and Kia began to diverge: Hyundai focused on 'modern lounge' designs with more intuitive, sophisticated interiors and evolving its track-worthy N trim. Kia focused on rugged modernity defined by its X-line and star map lighting signatures. Both created distinct design languages that apply across their landscapes and unify their lineups. This idea of unified design comes through clearly in Hyundai's newest project, the redesign of the 2026 Palisade, a three-row SUV inflected with the brand's evolved design language. Inside you'll find elements we first saw in the Ioniq 5: Pixels, advanced technology and flexible, comfortable interiors that recognize that time in the car should be relaxing and social for everyone. The pixel motif, denoted by small squares that create patterns in Hyundai's EVs, is less prevalent and more intimated on the Palisade; pixels replace the 'H' logo on the steering wheel, which now features four diminutive squares (Morse code for the letter 'H'). The pixel design is hinted in seat perforations and rear backup lights that form a vertical line next to the tail lights. Other EV inspired details include the floating center console between the front seats, relaxation seats with a greater recline angle and foot rests and an updated flat-screen multimedia panel that spans the front dash. The interior of the 2026 Hyundai Palisade features rounded corners and muted tones An intentional sense of calm balances the pixels and technology that define modern Hyundai models, especially in its larger models such as the Palisade and the Ioniq 9. This was achieved using muted colors and tones, from light and medium gray leather or leatherette to softly-finished wood trims and a reduced use of chrome; those elements are further quieted by adding a matte finish. Rounded corners and gently sloped surfaces add to the relaxed feel; the center console armrest, which floats between the dash and the front seats and allows space to stow a handbag, is curved on all sides. It rises slightly to meet your elbow, adding a more human scale by reducing the sharp-edged puzzle-piece assembly that can define a car's interior. The result is a sense of coziness that's still roomy and allows for stretching out. New technology in the Hyundai Palisade also adds to the sense of calm with faster, more intuitive function. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto now connect wirelessly; 'Hey Hyundai' voice assistance is now included and a rear occupant alert is so sensitive it can detect a sleeping baby. New daytime running lights mirror the rear tail lights to create the Palisade's new lighting ... More signature Probably most notable on the 2026 Hyundai Palisade are the front and rear ends flanked by stacked linear lights to create its lighting signature. Daytime running lights, which are etched metal panels designed to glow during the day and light up at night, flank the front corners of the Hyundai Palisade and frame new LED headlights. On the rear, the tail lights nearly mirror the daytime running lights with a similar shape and also define its rear corners. Overall, the effect is distinct and allows the Palisade to show off its new signature in any light. The Hyundai Palisade XRT model is designed for off road adventure The biggest news for buyers are two new options for the Hyundai Palisade: a hybrid Ecco model and an off-road focused XRT model. The Ecco model may shake the marketplace the most; it offers a powerful 4-cylinder hybrid powertrain that delivers 329 hp and is estimated to earn 34 MPG. Hyundai showed off the Ecco model in the Calligraphy trim, its most luxe level that features leather upholstery, heated power seats in all three rows and front massaging seats, among other pampering details. The XRT model, following in the footsteps of the Santa Fe and the Ioniq 5 XRT, delivers more off-road capability with off-road driving modes for mud and sand, all-terrain tires, recovery hooks and a higher ground clearance. The Palisade XRT also features model-specific leatherette seating with a mountain motif and a unique front grille designed to better deflect brush and dirt. The boxy SUV trend defines the 2026 Hyundai Palisade If there's one thing that the automotive industry has learned, it's that SUV buyers like voluminous and muscular SUVs. Hyundai Motor Company learned first hand in 2020 when it rolled out the best-selling Kia Telluride and since, the mantra seems to have been 'boxy is better.' We saw this in the Hyundai Santa Fe and now the Hyundai Palisade. Even the Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV, the first model to build on the pixel design language, delivered on the boxy trend, becoming not only one of the best-selling EVs but winning all sorts of awards including World Car of the Year, World Electric Vehicle and World Car Design of the Year for 2022. For 2026, the Hyundai Palisade, through its design and attention to detail, illustrates just how far Hyundai has come on its journey to lead the automotive industry.
The Drive
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
Ferrari Designs Haven't Hit the Same Since It Broke up With Pininfarina
The latest car news, reviews, and features. Name a pretty Ferrari and there's a 90% chance it says 'Pininfarina' on the side. The Italian design house began penning Ferraris in 1951, but the two shockingly parted ways in 2013. In an interview with Motor1 , Ferrari design boss Flavio Manzoni explained the decision to go at it alone, and, while it makes complete sense from business and technical points of view, it was a bummer for everyone involved: Ferrari, Pininfarina, and the fans. 'At the beginning it was very, very tough for [Pininfarina] because after more than 60 years of collaboration they had to accept the idea that Ferrari wanted to create [its] in-house design center,' Manzoni recently told Motor1 . 'But it was also necessary, because Ferrari was the only car manufacturer in the world without any internal design center, which [was] a bit strange, and also risky.' Ferrari Roma. Ferrari Just that alone is enough reason for Ferrari to move its design department in-house, rather than continue outsourcing to Pininfarina. Design houses like Pinifarina aren't nearly as popular as they were in the 1950s and '60s, so what if Pinin suddenly went out of business? Ferrari would be screwed. The ability to be fluid and create its own designs without relying on anyone else was necessary for Ferrari. More importantly, though, Maranello needed more technological freedom. So many of its modern cars rely heavily on active aerodynamics and have highly complex integration between bodywork and chassis, especially now that battery packs are being crammed in. A more cohesive process is necessary, with an in-house throughline between early sketches, technical development, and the final product. 'The other problem was that the level of technical complexity of the cars was increasing a lot,' Manzoni said. 'So it was necessary to work as a team with synergy, not with the designers working somewhere else and with engineers in Maranello.' Just because I understand the decision doesn't mean I have to like it, though. All of my favorite Ferrari designs were done by Pininfarina. OK, so that's kind of by default, considering how long their relationship was. But very few of Ferrari's post-Pininfarina designs have really captured me in the same way. I like the Roma, that's an undeniably pretty coupe, and the 12Cilindri is pretty cool. But neither of those two is as good-looking as something like the Pininfarina-designed 599. Almost all of Ferrari's own designs have been pretty mid in comparison. Ferrari 458 Speciale The 458 Italia, for me, is the delineator, as everything after it seems to have aesthetically failed to spark that same Ferrari magic. Even the new 296 GTB, which is the brand's best-looking mid-engine car since the 458, just falls kind of flat. It lacks that specialness that made even its questionable-looking cars interesting, like the 348. However, that doesn't mean this will always be the case. Ferrari has only been designing its own cars for less than a decade, so its process for creating a design and making it safe, aerodynamic, and capable of fitting its hybrid technology is still quite new. So as it continues to develop its process, its cars should only get prettier. At least that's the hope. But if you'll excuse me, I'm going to figure out which organs of mine I can live without so I can buy a 458 Spider. Got tips? Send 'em to tips@ Nico DeMattia is a staff writer at The Drive. He started writing about cars on his own blog to express his opinions when no one else would publish them back in 2015, and eventually turned it into a full-time career.
Times
12-05-2025
- Automotive
- Times
Fiat Grande Panda review: a stylish little electric for £21,000
In a world of serious-faced SUVs offered in various shades of monochrome, a bright red supermini (other colours are available) is to be celebrated. Even better, the Fiat Grande Panda is filled with the kind of happy detail that makes you wonder where all the fun went in car design. Despite having the Grande tag, it looks smaller than it actually is, a visual trick played by its slab sides and bluff ends, front and rear. It's assertive but not threatening, interesting but not showy. And it pays homage to the classic Fiat Panda shape — can you believe the original was launched 45 years ago? — without falling headlong into the trap of pastiche. Fiat's designers have taken an icon and updated it without
