New Tiny Germans Coming: Q1 and A-Klasse

This chop dates back a couple of years, hence the name A1 AllRoad. Today this up-and-coming small car would most likely be called the Q1. Audi already has the mighty Q7 and the slightly smaller and very desirable Q5. There are spy photos circulating the web right now of the even smaller Q3, due to be introduced perhaps as early as the next Geneva show. While I'm not really sure there needs to be an even smaller crossover from Audi, there are plenty of rumors of a Q1. Part of me hopes this would be a small 3-door crossover. At some point as a car becomes smaller four doors become too small to be practical. The tiny A1 is a 3-door right now, so perhaps the crossover will be as well.  I chopped my A1 AllRoad as a 5-door though. Not really a crossover so much as a tall hatchback, the AllRoad concept gave Audi's regular wagons more road-clearance and butcher details, which I have included here.

Mercedes Benz's tiniest line of cars, excluding the Smart cars, is their A-Klasse. Available in 3- and 5-door versions, as well as the slightly large B-Klasse, these are MB's base models in most markets, although they've never been for sale in the USA. The platform is innovative, and features a double floor with the tiny front engine designed to slide in between the two floors in case of a front impact. There is to be a 3rd generation A-Klasse shortly, and will most likely be completely redesigned for today's market. The original A came out in 1997 and was revised in 2004, but has really been changed very little. For my chop, I lowered the car, and made it a bit wider. I gave it an actual wraparound rear glass hatch, instead of the faux wrap that the real cars have. I also beefed up the fender flares and gave it quad exhausts, perhaps a bit of overkill, lol, but let's call this the AMG version. I also made the third rear stop light part of the enlarged MB star logo.

As Smooth as Peggy Lee in '53—Audi A8C

Standing the test of time, this s-m-o-o-t-h Audi A8 Coupe was chopped in 2007 or early 2008. I'm not sure the A5 was even out at the time, but this A8C certainly looks like its big brother in today's light. I did a second version with a longer roofline, a fastback/hatchback, but it wasn't as balanced looking. I'll find it for a future post of awkward chops, lol. I lengthened the hood and steering wheel-to-axle ratio to make room for a brand new straight 8. Hah! Can you imagine?

B T W :

By the way, Peggy Lee, in 1953, was in a remake of the Jazz Singer, Al Jolson's classic film. Danny Thomas starred alongside Peggy, and while I haven't seen it, it's apparently quite awesome. You can check it out at this amazon link. She was married for the second time in 1953, and also released the classic Black Coffee. As smooth as Peggy Lee in '53 would have to be pretty damn smooth! 

I was lucky enough to see Peggy Lee perform twice, both times in the early '90s.I brought my mother the second time, in Manhattan, and we had a great time in the city, one of my now-classic Mom and Son memories  : )

Peggy's Wiki page

HIgh-Tech Doesn't Even Begin to Describe...

Twelve cylinders, two turbochargers, a hybrid drivetrain, electronic all-wheel drive—pretty much the polar opposite of the back-to-basics Peugeot sports car below!

C H O P — This is one of my all-time favorite chops. I started with the Audi Rosemeyer Special concept, and extended it into a high-speed 4 seat luxury eco-hybrid with a W12 engine. Yes I did, lol. To illlustrate it's Autobahn-storming capabilities I included the Alps in the background—just like the mountains in the paintings of Southern Germany my parents brought home with them in 1960 when my dad retired from the Army.

Two years ago I worked up my 'bravado'—not an easy thing, lol, and I sent several of my chops in an email to Mark Stehrenberger, one of the best future-car illustrators in the world. I grew up with looking at his work in Motor Trend and other car magazines. I didn't expect to hear anything back from him, I mean he's so famous and so prolific, but darnit, I had a reply in less than 1/2 hour. He wrote back that he enjoyed my work and it was definitely magazine-worthy—especially a crazy car like this Audi. My year had been made! At the time I was posting at Motor Trend's forum every day, but not a single staffer ever commented on my work. It was really gratifying to bypass all of them and hear back from The Man himself!

Would a crazy high-speed twin-turbo W12 hybrid sports sedan for 4 passengers ever be produced for sale? I doubt it, which is all the more reason to create one in Photoshop. : )

Evolution of Design, Evolution of Thought

My chop of the Audi S5 coupe, the Stiletto, done just after the first press photos were released almost 3 years ago. I didn't think that Audi would actually produce a 5 door version of the coupe; the A4 already has the sedan and wagon markets covered, and Audi hadn't made a hatchback version of the it's larger mainstream cars. I used a straight beltline, a long-time Audi styling trait. Click each image to see in greater detail.

Not a chop, but rather a tuner version of the actual S5 Sportback introduced earlier this year. This bodystyle won't be sold in the United States, at least that's the decision right now. The rising beltline threw me for quite a while, I just didn't "get" it. (Photo from Autoblog.com)

My much earlier chop of an Audi sedan concept, made into a modern-day 100 coupe. The yellow coupe is the 1970 Audi 100 coupe, a bodystyle never sold in the USA, but one of the great looking moderate-priced European coupes of that era, in my humble opinion. I used the 1970 100 coupe's upward curving rear side window to deliberately place this new coupe squarely in the Audi design lineage. 

C H O P S — When I first saw the images of Audi's A5/S5 Sportback concept last year, I was surprised by the rising beltline, terminating in an almost BMW-like Hoffmeister kink sweeping up for the rearmost side window. Audi's longtime styling tradition of a flat beltline and an elegantly curved and arching roofline had been supplanted. 

The production A5/S5 2 door coupe, designed by Walter de Silva had introduced flamboyance into the Teutonic bodysides with gently waving and bulging bodywork, directly opposite of every previous Audi sedan and Avant going back to the late 1970s. It wasn't until I saw an A5 in person that it all made sense, and I was a convert. BUT, the Sportback's beltline really threw me for a loop. I just couldn't understand where it had come from, why the designers would go in that direction, so obviously "off" for the marque. The next Audi concept, the larger A7 Sportback showed the same design cue, and I still didn't get it. 

Looking through my Photobucket album to find chops to post in this blog, I came across my Audi 100 coupe chop from several years ago. In a rare nod to my inspiration, I included a 1970 Audi 100 coupe in the chop for historical perspective. Eureka! The rising beltline and curved rear side window was present in an Audi all the way back to the early '70s! I couldn't believe I hadn't 'gotten' the Sportback's nod to the past immediately. I should have trusted de Silva's design team, I should have had more confidence in their sensibilities, good taste, and intelligent design decisions. I won't be second-guessing them the next time I'm flummoxed. And I really hope they keep me on my toes with their next new cars!

If you 'read' the design images in the order I posted, with my chops on top and bottom, you'll see how the production A5/S5 fits in perfectly with once and future production models. Bravo, Walter!

BTW:

A word about my chopping philosophy—Pushing Pixels, lol. . . 

Even though many of my chops are cars 'of the future' ie, an extension or addional bodystyle for an existing model, I don't really try to predict what the actual designers will do. There are a couple of awesome choppers out there that have made a career out of predicting what a future car will look like, and they have their work published in magazines and websites. Their workmanship is flawless and they deserve every success and then some. 

I take a slightly different direction with my car creations. While I'll try to guess which car might come next, I create cars I want to see in MY driveway, the cars I always doodled as a kid. For instance, I love the entire look, feel, and ergonomics of suicide doors, so you'll see me use them often—not just on Lincoln Continentals. I like cars that are low to the ground with low roofs, large wheels and tires, and I like judicial use of chrome. I'm constantly reading about the history of cars, at least an hour every day, and I make frequent use of each marque's historical cues in an updated fashion for a [hopefully] contemporary look. I tend to use tried-and-true old-school kustom kar touches such as sectioning, channeling and chopping (the last technique refers to lowering the roof on it's supporting pillars, not the act of photoshopping, see Wiki link below). This really couldn't be done for a production car's addional hatchback bodystyle, or wagon version, and keep the pricepoint anywhere near the original, but I don't limit myself since I'm not really trying to accurately predict a production car... Of course,  I've done several chops 'their' way as well, but my core chops tend to be more fanciful and dramatic...

So even though I start with a press photo of some carefully thought-out production car, I never limit myself to what would be technically possible for a facelift. I treat the production cars as just a starting point, and let my imagination, and my eye-hand-mouse coordination, run free as a bird. (cue Lynerd Skynerd's Freebird, lol).

For the Wiki on these old-school custom car techniques, click here.

For an interesting short history of the early Audi 100s, check the Wiki here.