Very true. As a "prototype" design, those rarely ever make it into production. It's always a eclectic demonstration of design cues from which you see what people respond to, and what they do not. Along with what is feasible and what isn't, and you just distill everything down. So aside the aesthetics aspect of things, it's why I'm not that judgmental about the car here in terms of how it looks. For me, it's the fake "reality show" thing that kills it for me. Speaking of which....Originally Posted by Dangermouse
We haven't always seen eye-to-eye on many subjects, but were' in total agreement here. For myself, there is a huge difference between an educational "how-to" show, and "reality TV". The biggest example of this hit me one day watching an episode of "This Old House" on PBS. Owners are remodeling an entire kitchen, and to start things they call in a demolition crew. A team of people come in, and carefully remove all of the appliances, sink, and unbolt the cabinetry from the walls. Everything is stacked up outside, and they explain that the reason for this is not only to spend less time on a cleanup, but because they can sell the removed items to other renovators doing budget remodels of older homes. Compare that to any other "reality" show about house-flipping where some foppish goober prances around with a sledge hammer he can barely lift, and just starts randomly knocking holes in everything.
That is what kills me about this. If this had been presented as a potential prototype by itself, I would have been very impressed. They could say that a touchscreen was a potential mock-up, and the lack of functionality could have been presented as a concept. Which is perfectly fine. But when you have, and I would say outright lies presented by the show here, that takes away from the integrity of the entire low volume production project. "Wiring into the electrics" means nothing more than they plugged an iPad into the cigarette charger. It doesn't mean that the environmental controls were actually computerized in any way. The same with the doors with how they were presented. While I am encouraging and congratulatory when someone completes a DIY installation of a Wings-a-loft kit to pop their doors open, I feel it is in very poor taste to misrepresent that as some sort of fully automated door kit with a comparison to Tesla's Falcon Doors. Purposefully misleading people by showing the full operating range of the Tesla design, and then oh-so-conveniently cutting away so as to refuse to show the DeLorean doors closing by themselves. Hint: it's because they cannot. Even worse when you start taking credit for a kit which you did not design. As though door poppers never existed on DeLoreans before this show.
Most of all, yes, as much as even I am an ardent supporter of the PRV & K-Jetronic, I do recognize we must keep all available options open to improve upon the car. The mechanical engineering needs to be improved. Aside from better suspension, we need a better drivetrain in order to improve the reliability, serviceability, and performance of the car to keep them on the road. Aesthetics are great, but the engineering & performance needs to improve where it can. Speaking of which...
A "supercar", like design cues, is still an arbitrary, if not abstract concept that is dependent upon what comparisons we hold it to. I mean, the Venturi Atlantique a very similar drivetrain as ours with an updated PRV engine & Renault UNx transaxle. Just shy of 300 bhp, it was able to squeeze out 0-60 times of 4.9 seconds, and is considered a French "supercar".
Yes, we absolutely need an improved drivetrain, and apparently that is a goal for DMCH to make available whatever they put into this new vehicle become available as a kit for our own legacy cars. While I personally applaud them for that, who knows what metrics the public will consider as a proper upgrade worthy of the car. But no matter what upgrades occur for the drivetrain, appearance packages, or whatever, the image of the car should be one of careful refinement and strategized engineering. Not something which was haphazardly rushed and carelessly slapped together in a gameshow atmosphere on "reality tv". I'm not saying that it was, because I don't believe a single thing I've seen on this show episode. But the image of yet another vehicle being rushed into production is what is being conveyed here, and one that we don't need.
I don't blame DMCH entirely 100% for this, because obviously they did not edit the show themselves. But they did get involved for this cheap publicity. This just feels like the biggest mistake since refusing the car to have a cameo in Grant Theft Auto: Vice City.
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Hopefully they ditch that part of the design.
