Convertibles
WHETHER IT’S for photography, painting or car design, aesthetic judgement requires the same fundamental basic ingredients – balance and proportion. If they’re not right, it’s difficult to make the rest work.
There are two things that can fundamentally change the proportion of a vehicle; one is adding a longer wheelbase and the other is designing a purpose-built convertible and coupe from the same basic design.
There have been so many successful British sports cars, but of course the most successful was the E-type since neither the coupe nor the convertible was compromised. Apart from the 2+2, of course, which is a good example of when a car’s proportions were changed for the worse.
I was aware of this when I started the XJ41 project in the early Eighties. From the outset, I simultaneously designed the convertible and coupe to make sure the proportions of both models were right. To make it even more difficult, I wanted a targa version too. I’ve shown in previous columns the quarter-scale models of all three that in my eyes always looked purpose-designed.
But it’s not easy designing a convertible and fixedhead at the same time because the drophead needs to look right but not only when the top is down but also when it’s up, which results in different proportions to those of the coupe. It’s easy to make a coupe-based convertible look like a conversion rather than a model in their own right and there are plenty of examples where the open version of an existing car looks fundamentally wrong.
FROM THE OUTSET, I SIMULTANEOUSLY DESIGNED THE CONVERTIBLE AND COUPE TO MAKE
