Re: Double-takes and lookalikes
bertandnairobi,
When I finally stopped giggling at your finely honed and delightfully worded proposal, I gave serious thought to the matter. But nothing bubbled up from the jumble of memory. However, this evening I went for a stroll amidst the suburban splendour of South Norwood and a number of contenders raised their noses to sniff the chilly air before committing themselves. But before I do, some thoughts.
I believe the aforementioned Alfa 6 was designed before it’s Alfetta sibling yet looks like it was cobbled together from whatever was lying around in Portello at the time. Like the recent 166, it sat around for some years before they finally decided to go ahead and make it, so it looked both dated and out of sync with the rest of the range by the time it was launched. I think they sold about two...
As I was perambulating through my neighbourhood tonight, I found my eyes drawn to a previous generation Laguna and was struck by the elegance of it’s lines. It made me wonder what possessed Renault’s designers to take the dodgy route through the bushes with the current iteration. If indeed as you suggest B&N, it’s surfaces suggests Citroen; they conjure up the worst of Flaminio Bertoni’s excesses during the 1960’s. I struggle to know where to look when I see a new Laguna, since looking at the vehicle itself is entirely out of the question.
So anyway, back to the subject. Firstly, I present Tom Tjaarda’s De Tomaso Deauville - one of those designs that at first glance appears to be a carbon copy of William Lyons’ XJ4, yet closer scrutiny reveals very little detail in common. However in silhouette and in overall ‘spirit’ it definitely more than tips it’s hat in that direction. Oddly enough, the later XJ40 had a similar headlamp treatment, so I would suggest the influences went in both directions. Actually, I would contend the Deauville was a far more coherent Jaguar proposal than anything the major Italian design houses managed to come up with during the 1970’s despite several attempts.
Secondly, I give you the current Peugeot RCZ. While almost all commentators ascribe it’s major influence as the Audi TT, the feature line through the lower flanks running into the pronounced shoulder haunch appears (to my eyes at least) to be a clear lift from VW’s Karmann Ghia. Either that or I’ve been spending too much time drinking cooking sherry with Gorden Wegener. Or was that just a terrible dream?
