"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
Neat-o-Rama has a feature story on the evolution of fifteen car brands and their logos, ranging from Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen (with brief summaries of the history of each that makes for some interesting reading).
Audi seems to have barely changed their logo at all, apart from the time that the four car companies merged to form the auto union (back in 1932).
The design principle of a car door has not changed much since the very first concept automobile, save for a few advancements in high end supercars (such as the scissor door design, made famous by the Lamborghini Countach). Scissor doors, however, also suffer from the same hindrance as conventional doors and can impede access to some extent.
The Disappearing Car Door design seeks to change all that. This modification reworks the vehicle architecture to allow the front and rear doors to be concealed under the framework, thus providing some significant benefits as described in the video.
The principle structural design change is the elimination of the B pillar. While this modification may reduce the structural integrity of a conventional vehicle, some reinforcement can be designed into the A and C pillars, as is the case with convertible designs.
In addition to the benefits described in the video, the Disappearing Car Door design could also aid rescue efforts in the event of a collision by reducing the need to cut vehicles open. It would be quite interesting to see if this kind of traversal from conventional design is adopted by car manufacturers in forthcoming models.
rs6 sent me a link to this guy’s album, where a few pictures of the 2008 Audi R8 reside. This beauty was apparently waiting for the press kit shoot in Beverly Hills, CA.
For the uninitiated, the R8 is a road car that will be launched in 2007, and shares its name with the famous Audi R8 race car that won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005 (Audi took 3rd place in 2003, when the Bentley Speed 8 broke the R8’s six consecutive win streak).
The Audi R8 will be available in mid-2007 with a 4.2 L V8 making 420 hp, as seen in the Audi RS4. Pricing for the 420 bhp model starts from $140,000 USD. A 520 hp version is rumored to be in the making, although Audi has not yet confirmed this.
An advertisement by BMW.
An Audi response.
(I’ve not verified if these are real ads, but they are funny nevertheless!).
Update! rs6 brings up the point that Subaru joined in here as well, with this advertisement. They still look photoshopped and unofficial to me.
