Filed under: Concept Cars, Ford During the Ford concept car ride at the Dearborn Development Center, Executive Director of Design for the Americas Peter Horbury was on hand to discuss Ford's design direction. Autoblog got to chat with the man who helped reinvent Volvo about what the design team was trying to achieve with this year's concepts. Autoblog: We've got the three concepts from this year here today. Why don't you give us a little bit of an overview of what the design direction is with these vehicles and what you're trying to achieve this year. Peter Horbury: Well obviously, three quite different vehicles, but I suppose one common thread is that they're all American in some way. The Airstream being the combined effort between two iconic brands of America, one that put America on the road and one that let them stay there, and the Airstream is sort of just looking back to those famous days when - pioneering days, and I think they very well matched brands that gave us a very successful concept. We got an inspiration from elsewhere, as well. If you look inside, the movie 2001 was very much inspirational in the design of the interior. On the MKR here we have what will be the look of Lincoln in the future, and all the design cues on that are taken from various Lincolns in history but presented in a very modern way, it's not a retro design, but it reflects historic Lincolns from the 40s, 50s and the 60s, so that really was to show the direction of Lincoln design, for the next few vehicles anyway. On the Interceptor of course that really again American and it was a representation of the iconic sedans of the 60s, Ford Galaxie in particular, that's not repeating the design but just enough of the design cues from those cars of those days in a very modern representation. So it's America on the road from the Ford Motor Company and with the Lincoln showing the future of Lincoln. Continue reading what Peter had to say about about the concepts after the jump. Gallery: Ford Interceptor concept drive Gallery: Lincoln MKR concept drive Gallery: Ford Airstream concept drive Continue reading Autoblog Q&A: Peter Horbury on the 2007 Ford concepts Permalink | Email this | Comments More...
