Book reviews


How to Design Cars like a Pro


I describe myself as having been brought up in the motor trade; soon after the war, my father, a motor mechanic by trade, set up his own car repair business in our home town some miles to the north of Coventry, which was arguably the leading motor city of the country at the time. Apart from messing about in his workshop out of school, I would spend hours cycling around north Warwickshire. That was before I learned to drive and could borrow my father’s Mk II Ford Zephyr, with its column gearchange and bench front seat, but that is quite another story that I will leave to the imagination of my readers.


It must have been during the summer of 1960, I had cycled into Nuneaton when, suddenly, I was confronted by two projectiles that had turned the corner and were hurtling towards me. One was bright red,


Title How to Design Cars Like a Pro


Authors Tony Lewin & Ryan Borrof


Publisher Motorbooks Publication date 2010


Reviewer Graham Jeffery ISBN 9780760336953


the other bright blue, one was a hard top, the other a convertible. As they flashed past me, leaving an indelible impression, I realised that these must be the new cars that were rumoured to be coming out of ‘the Jaguar’ in the near future; I had just seen two prototype E-type Jaguars.


Despite not following in my father’s footsteps and instead making a career in gas turbine design, I have


retained a lifelong interest in all things automotive. As a result, I was more than interested when I was offered the chance to review this book, however, the title gave an obvious clue and I soon realised that it was not intended to be a serious text book.


I was a little disconcerted, even irritated, that individuals such as Ian Callum, Design Director at ‘the


Jaguar’ of today, who has provided the foreword to the book, are simply described as ‘designers’ without a qualifying adjective. I readily acknowledge the artistry and creativity of such talented people. Nevertheless, there is far more to total automotive design than physical appearance and ‘beauty’, important though this is to the majority of the motoring public, not to mention Jeremy Clarkson and his friends.


The book is effectively an introduction to automotive design/styling and a vehicle (pun intended) for numerous photographs and illustrations of design studio artwork. There is descriptive and explanatory text, but very little reference to the engineering effort that goes into the design, without which the artistic concept could not be realised in a practicable and reliable product. To this extent, disappointment was added to my initial irritation. Nevertheless, I must admit that I quite enjoyed leafing through the book, looking at the pictures and reminiscing.


The blurb on the back cover, from which I will quote, provides a reasonably accurate bullet point summary of the book’s contents, with just a little hyperbole. It has interviews with designers from several of the major automotive marques; ‘a wealth’ of information on automotive design past and present; and reviews 50 of the ‘greatest automobile designs’ in over a century of automotive history. There are design technique tutorials by ‘top industry professionals’ and there are examples of artwork produced by ‘top students’ from design schools around the world.


For the most part, the book considers and illustrates what I would characterise as the sleek, the streamlined and the aggressive. There is no illustration of the Land Rover, for instance, although there is a small picture of the Willys Jeep. The Land Rover, despite its iconic status, is, presumably, too functional and not pretty enough. There is just one small illustration of the original BMC Mini in cutaway form, fortunately, it is acknowledged as being a functional design icon of its time somewhere in the text.


Would I buy this book for myself? Probably not, as I believe that more references to, and discussion of automotive engineering would make it more interesting and provide an altogether better introduction for an aspiring stylist/designer. Would I accept it as a gift? Yes, of course, as it pictorially attractive and interesting. It would certainly make a good birthday or Christmas present for a petrolhead youngster, together with other titles from the publisher’s range.


In conclusion, readers may be interested to know that I had no inkling of what was going to appear on the front cover of this issue of Engineering Designer when I started to write this review. I had my first sight of the illustration only after writing my first two paragraphs. It was an eerie experience and, for an instant, I was transported back over fifty years and that red E-type was accelerating towards me, with the unmistakable sound of the 3.8 litre XK engine exhaust ringing in my ears.


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