APRIL 16, 2025
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 07:04AM 
The original - and still our favorite - Autoextremist logo.
The AE Quote of the Century: Everybody loves The High-Octane Truth. Until they don't. -WG
(Mercedes-Benz images)
(GM Design Photos)
The studio opening also provided a first glimpse of a GMC concept vehicle to be revealed later in 2025, developed in partnership with the GMC design team in Detroit. GM’s design teams regularly work on conceptual design studies that are intended to drive ideation, innovation, and collaboration across the company. With the opening of the UK studio, GM continues to demonstrate its commitment to Europe as the company scales its Cadillac electric vehicle business there, while also preparing to launch Corvette sales across the UK and mainland Europe.
The UK design studio is an integral part of GM’s global design footprint, providing valuable insights into European customer and cultural trends and introducing new talent and fresh perspectives into GM’s global network. GM’s global design footprint also spans studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Seoul.
The UK studio is led by Julian Thomson, a deeply experienced automotive designer who has worked with some of the industry’s most recognized brands. The 24,584-square-foot Royal Leamington Spa studio, which employs more than 30 designers and creative team members, is outfitted for both digital and physical clay model development.
"Our advanced design team’s mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles," said Michael Simcoe, senior VP of global design. "While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programs, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like five, 10, and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM."
The Corvette nameplate has long been leveraged to introduce experimental cars, concepts and prototypes that push the boundaries of automotive design and engineering, and the new UK design concept is no exception. While there is no production intention behind this concept, the GM UK Design team undertook this exercise to rethink what a Corvette could be with a true blank-page approach.
“As part of the Corvette creative study, we asked multiple studios to develop hypercar concepts, which we’ll see more of later this year,” Simcoe said. “It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette’s historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project. That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do – push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be.”
The UK team’s concept subtly incorporates Corvette’s iconic design heritage into a futuristic aesthetic focused on clean forms and muscular shapes. The design draws inspiration from the aviation industry, both in the sculptural and functional elements.
“One of the most unusual and significant aspects of our concept’s design is a feature known as Apex Vision,” said Thomson. “A nod to Corvette’s centerline focus, and inspired by the iconic ‘split window’ 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, this feature emphasizes a singular vertical central spine that is also a structural element, also providing a panoramic view of the road and surroundings.”
Beverly Hills. So, I was invited (or to be more precise, Peter was, but I live closer) to Century City mall to preview the new Sony/Honda AFEELA, the “first production model”... “representing the company's vision of 'Mobility as a Creative Entertainment Space.'”
Now, I would be the first to tell you that I am perhaps the last person you should actually send to review this kind of thing, especially since the introduction had nothing to do with actually driving it. I mean, I don't even wear headphones when I am out walking, and after a year of owning my '03 Z-4 I have not bothered to upgrade the radio to bluetooth so I can answer the phone while driving. I am happy to shift my own gears and be able to find Chris Douridas, “Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!” and KJAZZ, happily clustered on the low side of the FM dial. I think I am skating the edge of high-tech having a key with buttons to pop the trunk and a power top that I don't have to unlatch. Tech neither frightens nor flummoxes me; some of it I just don't see the need for. But I don't need power assistance to open and close car doors.
Yet.
Some of the tech I applaud - the inside screens that should (but do not because of federal regs) replace the outside mirrors are such a no-brainer one wonders why DOGE hasn't done something about THAT - the inside screens are so naturally placed they make the outside mirrors seem as antiquated as tube tires and headlamps lit by acetylene gas. Same for the inside rearview mirror.
Less interesting to me is the dizzying array of apps that are available (or will be), which were spread across the pillar-to-pillar display, or the AI which cheerily asks you how your day is going when you get in - and apparently expects a response (one wonders what the response would be if you said you were having a bad one - a pep talk? Auto-pilot you to the nearest 7-11 for a revivifying slushee? Or perhaps Trembling Acres, where it has helpfully made you a reservation for a recycled rubber room? The mind wobbles, as Kelly Bundy was wont to say).
Since we did not actually get the car in motion, we were not able to experience any of the promised self-driving tech, which they assured would have at least semi-autonomous capabilities on city streets. We were also not able to interact with the mapping function. (They have not as yet disclosed who they are partnering with for mapping and/or real time traffic info.)
I would actually be interested in seeing how it drives; the steering column is capped with one of those yokes that Tesla briefly flirted with, and I wonder about. Do they have super-variable steering that will make the low speed turns toe-in quicker, or will you have to twirl that little thing around three or four times to get out of a parking space? I am much more interested in acceleration at the on-ramp and how touchy the brakes are than the fact that I can change the mood lighting or have Dolby Atmos pipe in three different engine noises depending upon my mood. I do have on occasion a need for a car that seats four, but not necessarily one that will allow passengers in the back to ignore each other by watching two different movies while the front-seat passenger uses their PS5, all with active noise canceling between the seats so the person playing Call of Duty doesn't bug the person streaming cat videos.
Perhaps the silliest thing on the car is the “Media Bar,” a literal Times Square Zipper on the front of the thing that allows you to give personalized messages to the unsuspecting on the street. First thing I asked was whether this was accessible while driving. The answer was “no” for obvious safety reasons. Dashing my hopes of cruising my 'hood with snarky messages like “Last season? Really?” or “Yes, I did go to Irv's Burgers again. So what?”
It's Sony/Honda, so it's all put together beautifully, with lovely finishes that whisper “I am very comfortable but would never be so vulgar as to flaunt it.” The outside is covered by a gorgeous non-metallic paint in what must be called “Forget Me Grey” and except for the lumps on the forward section of the roof that house the cameras, sensors, and LiDAR (and that “Media Bar”) smooth almost to the point of anonymity. It's a beautifully done technical achievement. And it does nothing at all for me.
Now, if you'll excuse, me I am going to shoo some darned meddling kids off my lawn...
(Tom Pease)
The AE Song of the Week:
I was born from love, and my poor mother worked the mines
I was raised on the Good Book of Jesus
'Til I read between the lines
Now I don't believe I want to see the morning
Going down the stoney end
I never wanted to go down the stoney end
Mama, let me start all over
Cradle me, Mama, cradle me again
And I can still remember him with love light in his eyes
But the light flickered out and parted
As the sun began to rise
Now I don't believe I want to see the morning
Going down the stoney end
I never wanted to go down the stoney end
Mama, let me start all over
Cradle me, Mama, cradle me again
Never mind the forecast 'cause the sky has lost control
'Cause the fury and the broken thunders
Come to match my ragin' soul
And now I don't believe I want to see the morning
Going down the stoney end
I never wanted to go down the stoney end
Mama, let me start all over
Cradle me, Mama, cradle me again
Going down the stoney end
I never wanted to go
I never wanted to go
Mama, I never wanted to go
"Stoney End" by Laura Nyro, from the album "More Than A New Discovery" (1966).* Written by Laura Nyro. Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Lyrics powered by LyricFind. Listen to Laura's original recording here. Listen to Barbra Streisand's cover of it here. Watch Sara Bareilles perform "Stoney End" at Laura Nyro's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 here. And watch a CBS News Sunday Morning profile from 2001 on Laura Nyro here.
*Laura Nyro (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968) and New York Tendaberry (1969) and had tremendous commercial success with various artists recording her work. Wider recognition for her artistry was posthumous while her contemporaries such as Elton John idolized her. She was praised for her strong emotive vocal style and 3-octave mezzo-soprano vocal range. Between 1968 and 1970, a number of artists had hits with her songs: The 5th Dimension with "Blowing Away", "Wedding Bell Blues", 'Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness" and "Save the Country"; Blood, Sweat & Tears and Peter, Paul and Mary recorded "When I Die"; Three Dog Night and Maynard Ferguson recorded "Eli's Comin'"; and Barbra Streisand recorded "Stoney End", "Time and Love", and "Hands off the Man (Flim Flam Man). Nyro's best-selling single was her recording of Carole King's and Gerry Goffin's "Up on the Roof." Nyro was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2010) and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2012). (Knowledge courtesy of Wikipedia and Songfacts.com)
Editor's Note: You can access previous issues of AE by clicking on "Next 1 Entries" below. - WG
