I’ve got two SUVs, a small hatch, a supercar and a sedan in my current top 5.
The Rolls-Royce Ghost comes top.
Today I take to the mean streets of Melbourne, and pit this car against the very epitome of the twin marques’ post-war sedans – the Bentley Continental S3 Flying Spur Six Light.
Then it’s your turn.
Welcome to the greatest car show on earth.
Melbourne’s inner eastern suburbs with its wide tree-lined streets and high median income makes it a veritable playground for spotting exotic beasts in the wild.
I’m not rich, but around all this I enjoy my privilege.
I get to see these extraordinary machines as the owners wish they could see them – in action from the curbside.
My first car is an SUV, one with styling roots stretching back to the middle of the last century.
The 2015 (or thereabouts) Land Rover Defender.
Spy shots from Africa bring bad news – the replacement for the Defender and a loss of face.
Jeep have done a superb job upgrading their jeep face, while Toyota has turned theirs into a manga character.
The great thing about the Land Rover face is that it has been allowed to change, substantially if you consider such key signifiers as headlight and grille. You can’t buy such hard-won brand equity.
But the new shape appears more loyal the Range Rover visage.
Cheekbones are gone, shedding any semblance to the original. If you’re going to cut corners, why not go Lightweight?
The Mercedes-Benz G-series has only just entered its second generation in 2018. They kept the shape and changed pretty much everything else. I see a lot around here and every one is a G63. Why you need that much power in an SUV is beyond me. Especially when you’re probably not going to use it for towing.
Still, despite their enormous sticker this sells, and its popularity show no signs of flagging.
I see just as many late model Defenders around as the G63. But it’s a different type of owner – channeling the outdoors type rather than hiphop gangsta.
Which goes even deeper as to why there is no need to overhaul this exterior shape.
You could make this longer, wider and taller without affecting the key Land Rover attributes; those frontal cheekbones, that windscreen angle, the foursquare proportioning and constant radius corners. Very easy to work within those parameters.
How much NVH do you really need to dial out of one of these things?
The last one rolled off the line in 2015, but there was a run of restored late models released by the factory as the 2018 Defender Works V8 70th Anniversary Edition.
My number 4 because this is the last time we’ll see this classic face on the latest model.
Next is a small hatch.
I love these. I get to drive my mother’s base 2007 Corolla and it is a genuine hoot around our narrow backstreets. No classic I’ve ever owned drove as competently and assured as mum’s car.
The small car segment is definitely where so much fun is being had.
Except they’re all starting to look the same.
Because the Bionic. Some of these aerodynamic ideas are 100 years old, and yet this Mercedes-Benz concept van seems to have influenced the small car category more than any other since its showing in 2006.
Note how the rear greenhouse volume tapers more greatly that the lower body. Many five-door hatches right now are shrunken versions of this van with a slightly longer nose.
During this reversion to the styling mean, distinctiveness took a back seat.
But we now seem to be entering the waxing phase of adding redundant artifice for brand differentiation. And boy are there some ugly cars on the road using this tack-on formula.
The coupe segment gives us some more appealing shapes in this size category.
For a while, the 2002 Megane captured my attention. A fairly conservative three-door, with an unusual and distinctive bay window at the rear. It took me a while to warm to, and I now miss it on the present models.
But when you nail the shape, there is no need to fall back on artifice and tack-ons.
Just as with this delicious dollop – the 2011 Opel Astra.
It is completely conventional, devoid of any flagrant distinctiveness but perfectly, sweetly shaped.
Bottom left is the sportier street body. Bottom right is the base model, and it’s my preferred version.
The waxing phase. The incoming model has earned more pronounced creasing and other busyness elsewhere. Not ugly, but even further away from the simplicity of the base 2011 model.
I came across my first at a short-lived Opel dealership. I was so perplexed to see that marque selling cars in Australia, I hardly registered the bright red Astra coupe on the forecourt. But something about its uninflected beauty stayed with me.
When I came across this yellow one basking in the afternoon sun, I had my moment of clarity.
As beautifully shaped as anything this small in automotive history. Number 3 for me.
SUVs.
Sigh.
The Bentley looks like a London cab. The Maserati looks like one with frontal damage.
The Lamborghini comes across like a transformer that got jammed halfway through a transformation.
And the BMW and MB fastbacks always remind me of this unfortunate gentleman.
There is hope. The Tesla has done a superb job reiterating how to fastback.
Tesla’s sedans leave me cold, but I’m really impressed with how this SUV shape turned out. I didn’t realise until standing close to one how large these are. That profile reminds me of Giugiaro’s 1973 Alfetta GT.
But if I had to have a family wagon, brand-new off the showroom floor (with an unlimited budget, natch), it would be the Range Rover Velar. The work they have put into the treatment of this shape has paid off, to the extent that this variant supersedes the Vogue as the prettiest of the bunch.
Here’s the same shot unretouched. You can see just how far ahead this shape is in its precision surfacing.
Nevertheless, I’m picking another SUV as my number 5. The 2011 Nissan Juke.
Popular with a certain audience and influential on its category, this has to be the ugliest new thing I have seen in many years.
It was based on a bath toy, the 2009 Qazana concept car, and somehow made its way onto the road.
It reminds me of a fortress on a hill, which I think is part of its appeal.
Completely at odds with my own sense of proportion and beauty, but as the passenger vehicle category moves towards the driverless I am trying to get a hold on the mindset that principle appeals to.
Zoox is a unicorn aiming for a pureplay automated vehicle, not a modified road car. They’ve been looking at a shape with no differentiation between front and rear – this vehicle will be able to take either direction equally.
I’m not saying Zoox is going to win the race towards mass-production, but its symmetricality is something the Juke’s profile brings to mind.
At this angle, a whiff of Gandini’s Stratos. With yellow submarine by Sbarro.
The success of the Juke appears to have caught Nissan by surprise. Its purchasers loved its quirky differentness, and the other manufacturers noticed. Above is the Toyota CH-R, channelling the Juke but speaking in jammed transformer.
With the Toyota I’m starting to get what the Juke’s about.
Still, I am complete flummoxed as to how something so ugly could carry so much appeal.
It’s included in my top 5 because of my own visceral response – as strong as for anything I really like but in a negative way.
There are very few shapes that still make me stop and look as this one continues to do. Thankfully it ended production in 2017, with a more conventional shape coming to fill its gap.
Number 4 is a supercar. Because a kid has to dream, right?
Problem is, if I see a new model Ferrari I still think this 308 GTB is a better shape.
If I see a Lamborghini, I defer to the Countach.
A McLaren? The F1.
There’s something so buoyant and complete about these shapes that’s missing from the current crop.
I blame ground effects.
The 2009 BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics still carries a sense of buoyancy about it.
It’s the last supercar since the McLaren F1 that captured my imagination and longing.
I’ve written a love letter to this car, and my ardour still holds.
But it seems to have become a bit of a dead-end for BMW.
The i8 lost its buoyancy thanks to its deadweight doors. And the i3 seems to be on a road to nowhere.
There’s a new 8-series arriving, but it’s not anything like the Vision EfficientDynamics.
It is, in fact, a replacement for the the 6-series two- and four-door Gran Coupes. Which is a bit of a shame because the four-door 6 is so nice it nearly made my list.
If the three-box sedan is dead, no one told the upper end of the market. Maserati has excelled in this space, and the new Alfa Romeo sits well in that low-slung look. Volvo has brought in a nice-looking brick with an attractive wagon to match. Mercedes make a nice low-line shape. The wagon is, however, a d-pillar disaster.
But the sedan that wins my top spot is this sunkissed hunk of lusciousness.
The 2009 Roll-Royce Ghost; utterly, utterly gorgeous and mesmerising and perhaps the most forward-looking shape on the road.
Long story short. VW bought the Rolls-Royce and Bentley car manufacturing concern for about $800 million.
BMW bought the Rolls-Royce name and logo for about $80 million, and after some negotiation retained ownership of the grille and Spirit of Ecstasy mascot as well.
VW got stuck with the ugliest Rolls shape since the Gulbenkian days, and BMW got one of the best design briefs in the history of design briefs.
A new clean sheet shape for the Rolls-Royce.
They wisely started up top, with the limousine-grade Phantom. They produced a language of uncompromising solidity, accepting of its bulk but not acquiescing to it. The only downside was those two round beams in the face; not placed high enough for headlights, nor low enough for fog lamps.
The Phantom’s face was resolved in 2015, more in keeping with their baby model – the Ghost.
Still an imposingly large car, the Ghost softened the archness of the Phantom without sacrificing solidity or precision. The proportions were divine, a long hood with forward-set front wheels, a nicely balanced but tight turret and a beautifully resolved rear. This car is the essence of decorum; it carries its two-tone well but I prefer the single-coloured versions.
2014 gave us a slight update with revised headlights; but as with the 67/68 Cadillacs, neither variation is left wanting.
The Ghost is without peer.
Mercedes-Benz learned this the hard way when they tried to move their S-class language upstairs to the Maybach, resulting in a car that looked like a Chinese knockoff made for party autocrats.
The current Bentley four-door is so underwhelming it doesn’t even merit a photo here. Arnage with distended hips and reading glasses.
The Rapide saloon looks like a too-thin supermodel, all tendons and awkward gait. The Lagonda, however, shows promise.
But where the Lagonda speaks in razor, the Ghost converses in ingot.
This car looks like it has been precision-machined from a solid billet of platinum. The headlights inform this impression with great effect. Whereas almost every other marque has chosen to smear their headlights all over the front end of a car, the Ghost’s are set back within the body. That inset suggests the thickness of the car’s skin; one of many small touches that emphasise the overall effect.
This shape is the very antithesis of retro.
The Ghost alludes to its past without slavish devotion. In fact, I find the car closest to the Ghost to be the 61+ Continental. And not just for the door handles, but for the impressive mass clothed in a sophisticatedly subtle skin. There is an expression coined for the Lincoln (IIRC by Engel himself); that its sides appear to be like sails filled by a gentle breeze. That also holds for the Ghost.
But where the Ghost differs from all these, including its Chrysler anticipatory tribute, is in its side window treatment. An extra quarterlight at the rear, giving the whole profile a more dynamic balance.
Just like that of the Bentley Continental Flying Spur Six Light.
The 1952 Bentley Continental is the most desirable post-war series from either marque.
The engine was developed from the unit used in the standard Rolls-Royce and Bentley saloons, higher compression and a traditionally un-cited but higher output made the car capable of 120 mph in those austere days.
Harking back to the glorious days of Le Mans in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Continental dispensed with any such crudity as a howling supercharger to give the moneyed post-war driver a veritable iron fist in a velvet glove. It was at the time the most expensive production car in the world.
In 1957, the first four-door Continental series appeared.
The Bentley Continental Flying Spur was an H. J. Mulliner series, shaped in-house by George Moseley. The coachbuilder was still an independent concern then, though they were a favoured supplier of bespoke Rolls-Royce and Bentley bodies.
At top is John Blatchley’s Silver Cloud/S-type standard saloon from 1955, sketched in ten minutes after the board rejected his cherished two-year-long-in-development version.
Beneath, the four- and six-light versions of the Mulliner saloon. The four might have appealed to those seeking some relief in the rear seat from the harsh outdoors, but the six revelled in letting that light in. Keef most famously owned a six-light in his Redlands days – Blue Lena.
Three inches lower than the standard saloons and about the same length, there was not a panel shared between them. And Moseley managed to interpret Blatchely’s language superbly.
These Mulliner shapes were also available with the Rolls-Royce grille, but without the Flying Spur moniker.
There’s a moment in ‘The Queen’ where Helen Mirren as Her Majesty comes across a fourteen point imperial stag on one of her properties. Just the two of them in the bare Scottish highlands, she is held in awe and wonder by the creature’s sheer magnificence.
I was reminded of that scene when I came across this Flying Spur. Walking the backstreets of beachside St Kilda with nary a soul around, I saw a Silver Cloud from the distance down a narrow street. As it approached, its windscreen seemed a bit low and I was confronted with this almost mythical beast instead.
In the flesh, a beautiful and imposing shape. Those sides appear more bluff than the lighting allows on this occasion. If I have any quibble, it’s the trailing shutline of the rear door and the fussiness around the rear number plate.
But this car carries itself so supremely well. From its quad light S3 front being the very essence of automotive classicism to a superbly weighted rear suspended gracefully from its upper plane.
The original R-type Continental – at top – was a lightweight, aluminium-bodied fastback. Styled by Blatchley, it was produced for the factory by Mulliner.
Its initial replacement was the S1 fastback (middle), essentially the same shape with the slightest bit more heftiness in its detailing and appointments. Also built by Mulliner.
At bottom is Moseley’s notchback variation. This was based on his Flying Spur saloons, but it too was not granted that title. Introduced during the S1 period, it became the ‘standard’ Mulliner coupe body for the S2 Continental.
The 1991 Bentley Continental R was based on the Moseley notchback. And it serves as the last time anything attractive appeared with a Bentley badge on it.
Today’s coupe looks like a kit car tribute to the Atlantique.
For the Phantom Coupe, Rolls-Royce looked to the then factory-owned coachbuilder; Park Ward.
This notchback with thick c-pillar was their conservative fixed-head option for the Continental.
On the new car, it comes across as a potato.
The Ghost-based Dawn got a fastback instead.
It was inspired by a car considered for the factory Continental; a 1951 Roll-Royce bodied by Pininfarina for a certain Luigi Bressani. The cost of each unit out of PF became the sticking point for Rolls-Royce. Thankfully. This shape is brutish where the eventual R-type Continental was serene.
The modern iteration is no improvement.
They could try again.
Just like they need to with their new SUV – pure London cab.
The Ghost is due for an upgrade, with prototypes already in play. Not sure if the top image is an accurate representation, but yay; the return of the spotlight! Placed in a much better position. Looking real good.
The current one still looks so modern, despite being ten years old. Where to go from here?
The Bentley Continental Flying Spur Six Light is a paragon of its time; completely, utterly gorgeous and desirable.
The Rolls-Royce Ghost is something else; something beyond its time.
And having enjoyed the extraordinary privilege of experiencing these two cars in the real, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Ghost is the more perfect expression.
My compliments to its stylist, Andreas Thurner.
So that’s mine. Now for yours.
…
Top 5 Current Shapes
2009 Rolls-Royce Ghost
2009 BMW Vision EfficientDynamics
2011 Opel Astra Coupe
2015 Land Rover Defender
2011 Nissan Juke
…
Rookie of the Year
2017 Range Rover Velar
…
Challenger they really nailed it; 11 years on the road and I still look at them.
Jaguar XK
Cadillac CT6
Im anxious to see what the new Bronco is going to look like in person
The Challenger really is remarkable when you think about it, 11 years, stable sales and the most faithful retro recreation of the current ponycars to its predecessor that was in essence a flop that sold for less than half the model years. And yes, that’s my favorite current shape, everything else would be distantly behind
I’m old, and I think most cars today are just ugly bug faced squished eggs, and the Challenger towers above almost everything else, especially anything I can afford and could use as a daily driver. I’m on my second one now, and I’m just hoping FCA doesn’t totally screw it up so I can buy another one in 5-7 years. A little smaller one would be fine, just don’t make it “modern” and don’t make it much slower than my Scat Pack is now. 12 second 1/4 mile E.T’s are a must.
I’ve got an ATS living around the corner, and that has some sweet lines. Hadn’t seen the CT6 but I’m going to do a followup that discusses that Caddy language.
Wonderful stuff to look at and read. Here’s my tiny contribution
The just-superseded Henrik Fisker designed Astons DB9 and Vantage were perfect, classically beautiful and timeless in a way their successors are not.
The Vauxhall/Opel Astra GTC really stands out on the road. An everyday car that proves such things can be beautiful. Another one that’s been superseded by an inferior shape.
LT Dan’s suggestion of the Jaguar XK is a good one – aside from some clumsiness around the headlights it’s a very pretty car, much more attractive than an F-Type. Maybe because it doesn’t feel it has to try too hard ?
I am fond of the current (3rd generation) Citroen C3 with it’s simple overall form and quirky detailing but that might be my lifelong marque bias talking…
VW Up! An antidote to the over-garnished and bloated shapes that surround it. Proper little jewel of a car.
I came across a guy who had the Astra. Large fellow; at least 6’3″ and round bellied. He said he bought the Astra on looks and comfort.
Top 5 current (new/latest) models: Peugeot 508, Volvo S90, Renault Clio, Alpine A110 and Suzuki Jimny.
Suzuki have really upped their game. Jimny fits so well into their range, and I’m seeing more and more on the road.
Lots of great food for thought, as usual. I don’t have time for a detailed commentary. But this one line is a bit puzzling to me:
But where the Ghost differs from all these, including its Chrysler tribute, is in its side window treatment. An extra quarterlight at the rear, giving the whole profile a more dynamic balance.
The Chrysler 300 came out in 2005, four years before the Ghost. And except for the rear quarter light, I find the general shape, proportions and stance of the Ghost to be a remarkable tribute to the 300. 🙂
Beaten by the 2003 Phantom. Credit where its due – that Mopar did its job real well for its audience, but that language started with Rolls.
I was actually aware of that, not having lived under a rock for the last decade and a half. 🙂
I was just a bit confused by your wording, calling the Chrysler “its tribute” in reference to the Ghost. But it’s apparently just a minor wording issue. I thought you might be making a specific point with that. Never mind…
No, you’re right and I was just trying to squirm my way out of it. Amended.
1. Lexus LC500
Like the rest of the world, I recoiled in horror when Lexus first unveiled their Predator-style spindle grille five years ago. I still don’t like it on most of their lineup. But on the LC it finally works for me. The car oozes dynamism with its bulging hips and low-slung waistline, and the intricately-woven grille ebbs and flows like a piece of esoteric modern art. An LC in dark blue with the 21-inch wheels is my pick for the best-looking car currently for sale under $100,000. Yes, it’s a bit overdone, but so is everything else on the road these days, and I rather like most of the LC’s design flourishes anyway.
2. Volvo V60/V90
I’m still not smitten with Volvo’s taillight treatment (and I actually dislike it rather strongly on their sedan models, especially the S90), but I feel the V60 and V90 are the best expression of Volvo’s new minimalist exterior aesthetic, which aligns closely with my preferred automotive styling approach.
3. BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe
Make mine an Alpina B6 in Alpina Green Metallic. The only one of BMW’s oddball step-sister models that I’ve ever had a hankering for. Sadly, my affections appear to be in the minority as BMW discontinued the 6GC for 2019.
4. Jaguar F-Type coupe
I loved it when it first came out and it still turns my head today. I like the XK but the generic front-end treatment throws it off for me. The F-Type is anything but generic, and its fastback shape is lovely to behold in my eyes.
5. Honda e
Despite my partiality for the LC, I do generally prefer unadorned and straight-lined designs, with few superfluities. Hence my appreciation for the recently-announced Honda e, which is appealing in a diminutive, retro sort of way. If only they brought it to the States I could see myself zipping ’round town in one.
I have not seen that Alpina Green colour, and its a stunner. There have been quite a few of these blue ones around and its my favourite colour on the road at the moment.
Yes, I too lament the loss of the 6. I saw an 8 two-door and its just comes across as a larger more ungainly 6. It does say something for the three-box saloon and its place at the upper end of the market.
d’oh
Snapper Rocks Blue, if I’m not mistaken. Also one of my favorites; it’s a rare color that makes me snap a picture just for the paint itself, but this shade did just that the first time I saw it in the flesh.
Yep, it really punches out. Saw an X2 in that colour and it muted my automated recoil in horror response. It just stood out of the traffic. Looking forward to seeing that green.
I like Landrovers, I learned to drive on the road in one of its cousins an Austin Gipsy that was replaced by a 73 Landy both SWB hardtops I cant see any reason to invent a better mousetrap either,
Hatchbacks yep love em the longest Ive ever kept a daily drive was my Xsara hatch great little car extremely versatile a brilliant handling car, very chuckable with traction on turns nothing else can compete with, I still get the odd turn in it when my daughter visits and every time I drive it I regret giving it away, but I have another hatch bigger, more power, far more comfortable better equipped yada yada but I still miss that Xsara.
Lambos, ugly cars but fast if I could afford one I’d buy something else honestly.
I had the pleasure of minding an ex-army S2A biscuit tray. With all that weight taken off the sides and roof, that Land Rover cornered like a sports car. Not as fast, mind, but it’s all in the bum feel anyway.
Will someone please tell me which copied which..the 50’s bel air or the the 50’s Bentley?
John Blatchley at Rolls-Royce was very impressed with US metal; the fastback Caddy was a direct influence on his Continental. I’d say there was no such direct link between the Bel Air and the S-series Bentley, but he would have had his eye on what was happening transatlantically.
Interesting and thought provoking piece, and I marvel at your ability to articulate your thoughts and explain the ideas so succinctly.
My current top 5 (which will have a Euro-market bias, inevitably)
I agree with Don – the modern Rolls aesthetic is much more successful than the Bentley. The Ghost or more likely the new Phantom would in there. I saw my first Cullinan the other day, in black. It looked like an oversize knock off of the Metrocab. That is not a compliment.
My favourite recent saloon was the Holden Commodore, but I guess it no longer qualifies. I always look again at a Jaguar XE – compact, muscular but all there.
For a compact hatch, perhaps the new Mazda 3 – I saw my first one the other day and elegant and striking seem like good words.
For a supercar, the McLaren Speedtail takes some beating for flowing visual elegance and mind blowing performance. Until I’ve seen one for real though, I cannot nominate it, so it would be the McLaren P1 or Aston DB11 AMR in the right colour (that is, not the greys and silvers that seem to dominate). Modern Ferrari styling is not working for me, Porsche are too restrained, and probably constrained.
Do I have to choose an SUV? Then it would be the Velar or for a compact model the Peugeot 3008. Not the Juke, which might get into another Top 5, even with the Skyline GTR window shape. But I’d take a carefully specified BMW 4 series Gran Coupe ahead of any of them
Thanks Roger. VE Commodore just missed the cut, but I’ll be following it up and discussing it in the context of the current Cadillac language, as mentioned to LT Dan above.
Thanks Don!! although i believe the Bentleys look more like the Chevys than the Caddys.
Excellent article, here are my top 5. I have tried to pick from 5 different categories.
1) City Car: Volkswagen Up – Great shape, love the glass tailgate, brilliantly simple yet substantial as well, all you could want in a city car.
2) Family Car: Ford Focus ST Estate (Wagon) – I love the styling of the new Focus, especially the estate, the rear shoulder line gives it a great stance.
3) 4×4 (NOT calling it an SUV!): Land Rover Defender – like others I am counting this as a current vehicle as the replacement isn’t out yet. I can’t decide if my favourite is the 90 SWB Hardtop or the 90 SWB Pick-Up so I have pictured both, either way I think they look best as a base model with the white roof and painted steel wheels. I live in a very rural part of the UK and these are like the standard farm vehicle, I see lots of them every day, but they still make me smile.
4) Sports Car: Jaguar F Type Coupe – Compact but beautiful, I just wish they had kept the side opening tailgate of the concept (pictured), it would remove a few fussy lines. Other than that I love it.
5) Large Saloon (Sedan): Jaguar XJ – I think this is a very underappreciated car, I love the fluid lines of the side windows, the simple uncluttered rear and yes even the often criticised rear pillars. I think the proportions are good and it has aged very well in my eyes.
Thanks Dave. The Up! has copped some love in this thread, but I have to say I prefer the Polo – although they’ve just waxed it with extra creasage.
The Jag sedan has also got some love here – I like the rear a lot, and think they did an interesting job with the C-pillar but I’m not so enamoured with it as I was when it first launched.
How bizarre – a homage to the ugly-duckling Nissan Juke ! I suppose we can’t all like the same things.
As far as Royces and Bentleys go, I always thought the Mulliner and James Young cars inferior to the Park Ward models.
We might at least agree on the output of Hooper…
What beautiful pictures, I am enjoying the architecture as much as the cars, particularly like the art deco apartment? building with the last Land Rover pic, Can imagine it back in its day with that tall glass section may be lit up with soft green lighting.
Cheers Jonco. That building is on Park St near the corner of Toorak Rd opposite Fawkner Park. There’s a cluster of deco apartment blocks in that precinct.
Great art, great text, especially the “waxing phase of adding redundant artifice for brand differentiation” resulting in “some ugly cars out there.” That screws into place the current nose-wrinklers out there exactly – good shapes gone aimlessly awry for detail. And the “ingot speak” of the big Roller’s styling. Brilliant.
Otherwise, I’ll confess that I am glad that whatever it is you have in the air south of the river shouldn’t cause you lasting harm, even if you have inhaled a great deal of it.
Opel, yes, Velar, most def yes, Maybach, yes (in a “no” sense), current 4×4 snobjobs, all nein (they all ultimately speak German, you know). But Professor, surely the Fort is not a Duke on a hill, sorry, the Joke is not a Stratos on a pill, no, no, sorry, that’s not it at all. Surely with the Juke you jest, for a jauntily jumbled joke it is, that is, for sure you really meant the Nissan should be missin? And besides, undubitably a Duke’d be rolling in the Royce, the Royce itself undubitably a dubious choice. I mean, it’s noice, but not more, to this voice.
With Juke and Ghost, I just don’t see what you do – ofcourse, one IS a Ghost and perhaps I wish the other was unseen too – despite your eloquence. But then, I’ve never much bothered with the raptured 308 either, and once happily owned uglette French plebmobiles, so am an unreliable commentor for many tastes.
But even the Spur isn’t (the spur), because they squished toy doors on the back and too many window bits there. Very lovely it is, but not quite at the peak its name implies.
Please know I intend no disrespect for your very fine work and words. It causes a very entertaining reverie, much to be savoured.
However, compared to you, my mileage varies.
Going to keep nagging till you submit a piece.
Having had a chance to savor this in the way a finely cooked meal should be, instead of bolting it, my compliments to the chef.
I love these long takes on design by you; they really get me to stop and look more carefully. It’s the lack of that which is the cause of so much knee-jerk reactions to design, especially the more current streams.
I found the Juke to be a refreshing little stink bomb when it arrived; I was quite impressed that Nissan had the guts to do that. And we can see just how influential it has become, in Toyota’s take on the subject.
Your photography alone is cause for delight, never mind the insightful text. Thanks for a remarkably effective substitute for an actual stroll with you through your charming hometown.
Appreciated Paul. As ever, the privilege of contributing to this site is immeasurable.
Gulbenkian? Like in Turkish petroleum? I had to Google it. But see no connection
Nevermind, I found the bazaar Gulbenkian Rolls Royce. Great stuff