Page 28 - Marcello Gandini Maestro of Design Revisited

Soon after proposing the three- and five-door
compact hatchback to Renault for its W60 project,
design.
1987
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REVISITED
4305-dOOr hATChBACK ANd 4-dOOr SedAN
ON WATSON FINE BOO
5-DOOR
HATCHBACK AND
2-DOOR SEDAN
Marcello Gandini developed a series of designs
that explored the application of the plunging beltline to a
five-door hatchback and a two-door coupé… oops, sedan
Taking a page from commercial vehicle trends for better
side-view mirror visibility by lowering the side-window
line markedly, Gandini applied the same principle to
both his proposal for Renault’s project W60 for a mass
market car, and to the proposal that he was preparing for
Lamborghini’s project P132, the car that would eventually
evolve into the Diablo. This plunging window line would
also appear on the Cizeta-Moroder V16T.
For the five-door hatchback version, the window line was
well resolved, although the placement of the dashboard
may have been compromised. No doubt, the quarter
glass featuring the plunging line would have remained
fixed and flush fitted to the A and B-pillar, with the side
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windows part of the pair of front doors, with the glasses
sliding down within. Another interesting touch was the
porthole-style round glass windows within the D-pillar.
The two-door sedan idea was a most unusual concept,
with several features that went against conventional
design thinking. The front end and the first half of the car
made for a sporty and edgy style, but the rear design was
counter to 1980s trends in featuring an almost upright
C-pillar, and a heavy, square set rear end with a clamshell
boot that cut diagonally across the fenders. Although the
clamshell boot lid and the plunging window line aided
practicality, the design may not have been acceptable to
the mainstream marketplace.
 Rear three-quarter illustration by Marcello
Gandini, which gives an idea of what the
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design could have looked like. MARCELLO
GANDINI ARCHIVES
 The five-door hatchback version that
Gandini conceptualized. MARCELLO
GANDINI ARCHIVES
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