Funny how some film directors either get it dead right or dead wrong when it comes to casting the part for ‘car of the future’ for their latest mega-buck movie.
Take the car featured in Alex Proyas’s ‘I,Robot’ for instance. Audi were given a brief to provide a super-cool sports car for super-cool Will Smith and along came the RSQ. The designers at Audi quite likely had this car doodled for some time before the film but happily a bit of product placement would do wonders for the up-and-coming R8 that the world has gone gaga for today. There had to be some adjustments in the design of course because no self-respecting auto artist would include wheels on a car that was to be driven on the ‘roads’ of 2035. It seems that we will be riding along on balls instead. Hmmm.
Now fast-forward to 2054 and Spielberg’s ‘Minority Report’ features a car (designed by Lexus) that has the turning circle of an oil tanker. The doors could be a bit of a challenge for anybody taller than 3 feet and the interior looks like it came from a Morris 8 my Grandad once owned in the 1960’s. Happily though fake walnut trim will still be de rigeur for interior designers in the future – now that’s a comforting thought. Looks like car design might be going through a bad patch after the mid-30’s – they’ve even gone back to using wheels for goodness sake!
Remember the Batmobile from 1966? It was a car that looked totally mad and ‘futuristic’ too – don’t forget you could still buy a brand new Morris Minor back then. But best of all it could actually be driven on the road not only by the Dynamic Duo but by any old Penguin, Joker or Riddler. No CGI-gimmickry but pure inventive genius that made us laugh too. Check out this piece of Batfilm-footage…..
The Car Spy 
