retro-futurism cars

[gene giambona]

Seems like vintage cars have a strong following based on the number of modern cars being made to "look" like previous generations of the same model. Some people may say this throwback trend has taken away from design studio creativity while others think it's great. I personally like it, but also want to see something completely new and fresh.

The car model I wish would find some retro-futurism would be a remake of the '55 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. I think Mercedes could make a small production of these cars with plenty of willing buyers.

Here are some of the past and current cars off the top of my head which have received a bit of retro-futurism. Feel free to chime in on the ones I missed and be sure to add which car models you think would be cool to see.

Ford GT
Current style 5th gen Mustang
'02-'05 Retro T-Birds
Mini Cooper
VW Beetle
Dodge Charger ( a bit of a stretch here since the charger was never a 4-door, but they did make models with packages to look like the R/T, Daytona)

Coming soon:
Camaro
Dodge Challenger

[Historybuff]

Mercedes thinks retro-futurism is alive and well and are bringing back
a car with flip up doors a la '54-'57 gullwing (don't tell me they started in '55, I owned two 1954 gullwings).

But I think the failure of the Tbird revival hit the concept of retro-futurism bad. It's too bad J mays didn't come on board at Ford until after the design was hardened, he couldn't liven it up. It is a fun car to drive, based on the same chassis as used in a jaguar sedan.

I thought the Ford GT was a pretty good attempt at retro, though in real life the door-plus-roof piece turned me off, as I felt it was a blade of a guillotine coming at me each time I closed the door. I couldn't relax in one until I got into the GTX-1, a la Gerish conversion.

I also would have liked to see wheels styled more like the original Halibrands.

I am disappointed that the Cobraistis rejected the GR-1 coupe and Cobra concept roadster as not being close enough clones of the originals as I thought both were logical extensions of the originall styling. Ford doesn't have the money to build either one but the problem is the looking 35 mpg standard is going to kill off sports cars as we know them after about 2012 so they better hurry

[Veloce]

I always thought Chevy missed a gold mine by not making modern versions of the 55, 56, and 57 as 50 year anniversary cars in 05, 06, 07.

Jim

[boblyon1]

Chevy also missed the opportunity to develop the Cobra in the early 60s. Can you imagine having a Chev 350 in a Cobra?? Luckily, Chevrolet didn't want any in-house competition with the Corvettes and the rest, as they say, is history.