Luigi Colani 2008 Interview
 

He is a huge influence in my life. I realise that I've not learned as much about the man as I should. Genius!

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnwtiBoPtyc

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZOpBrYCgzQ

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tITG_kX5Toc

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzOub_rGWKE

I'll have to view these later, an intriguing body work to say the least.

This special Road & Track issue is from December 1991. The bottom left thumbnail on the cover is the Colani Corvette.

He says he wants to be 100 kph faster than Ferraris. "They have the 200 mph club. We are starting the 300 mph club."

I also kept this article from 1992. I must have had a mouse or hamster chew on it :) It says:

Luigi Colani considers himself a "bio-form industrial designer." His design work encompasses not only cars, but aircraft, trains, interiors, watches, eye-wear, cameras, toothbrushes and bicycles.
However, his Colani Corvette is aimed straight into horsepower heaven. It was originally built for static display as an experimental futuristic sports coupe. But Luigi decided it should become a motivational vehicle, since its lines produced a stunning 0.21 Cd, and the whole body acts as a wing, producing downforce to help the 1985 Corvette chassis. The Ford Top Loader four-speed trans is bolted to a 700 hp, 470 cubic-inch Chevy with 13:1 forged pistons, closed-chamber heads, a 640/290 [sic] roller cam and Hilborn fuel injection.
In 1992, Brian Shafter took the wheel and turned 248.188 mph to set a Land Speed Authority record for Class1, Catagory [sic] 2, Engine...at the World Finals on the Salt Flats.

NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/au...anted=all&_r=0

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...644-images.jpg

I like his 3-blade pinwheel wipers.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...629-images.jpg

Nobody else quite like Colani, maybe Ross Lovegrove?

I watched all of the Colani and the one Lovegrove video this morning.

MIND EXPANDING

Great stuff, really inspires after a long week of banging my head against the wall.

This is Giles Revell from Lovegrove's video. Giles Revell, Photographer

I'd like to explore more of the people he mentions. Does anyone have links?

I'd love to see the genetic design algorithms Mercedes used to design the Bionic car frame/unibody.

I'm seeing large format 3D printing being posited as a production method for car frames. Structural foams are not used nearly enough. Spot welds are weak. Seam welding will allow much smaller cross section structures, and thinner metal.

I've been thinking about this thread lately.

In the video he describes the 1989 Colani Corvette Charisma, as an upside down wing - it's all about down-force........he adds.

Interesting in that this is what the GM engineers were attempting to do with the 63 Stingray, except they did't clean up the belly enough to pull it off - and then decided it didn't work, so it remained an above deck styling exercise.

1957 XP-84 Q Concept - lead to the 1963 Stingray
http://corvette-concepts.tripod.com/...es/57xp84q.jpg

1989 Colani Corvette - Studios
http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/s...harisma_05.jpg

Luigi Colani Corvette
http://www.automorrow.com/images/eve...rrow89/ac1.jpg

1957 Q Corvette
http://www.corvettes.nl/gm_prototype...es/page2_1.jpg

http://www.carstyling.ru/en/car/1989.../images/13680/
http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/s...harisma_02.jpg


I've been altering my standard aerodynamic car design which I sketch up over and over again on grid paper to now incorporate more sweep in the tail - creating an inverted wing. It's growing on me, maybe I'll post it later.

I followed the Automorrow link. What a frustrating website

The link at the bottom of the article points to http://www.automorrow.com/index.html, which resolves to Automorrow which contains 4 links that point back to the same page!

The Automorrow 89 picture is available as a poster, but doesn't include the C-Form.

The Corvette article page and Home both are missing the navigation links (What's New - Events - Vehicles - Equipment - About) that are available on for instance Welcome to Automorrow.

Since Opera has an Accessibility Layout option, I no longer fear yellow Times Roman on black.

But still we're grateful for what we can get. I'll go poke at that website some more.

It's great to see his cars in high res photos from multiple angles :)

One of his Bonneville Corvettes was on ebay for $35,000!
1980 Chevrolet Colani Corvette Bonneville Racer

I stumbled upon this amazing site with huge high res photos...damn if l can find it on google. I finally found it in my history :)
Flickriver: Most interesting photos from Professor Luigi Colani pool

It's not a simple inverted wing...he's got a steep angle, plus a lower wing - l assume to keep flow attached. I recall a reference where Colani was inspired by a water beetle wrt the Corvette (on a C4 chassis!). The 1000 passenger jumbo jet is further down the page.

My skill in 3D modelling doesn't yet allow me to wrap a representative body around four wheels to do a CFD study...never mind get Cd 0.19 with plenty of downforce.

edit: l just realised that l was down the street from the Design museum in London, three months after the Colani exhibit (march - june 2007) o.O

p.p.s. Colani's website, of course ;) Flickriver: Most interesting photos from Professor Luigi Colani pool

Bookmarked.

I have a mouse he designed. It died even before the ADB connector became useless to me, but I kept it anyway. Maybe someday I'll replace the guts with a USB mechanism.