One of the things that’s part of our remit here at the Autopian is to take you behind the curtain. To reveal the inner workings. Not of the Autopian of course; no one wants to see that particular set of entrails from a failed sausage-making experiment (although from time to time we do lift the lid for our valued members). No, we want to be the flashlight that illuminates the automotive industry dungeon and shows you the things you won’t learn about anywhere else.
One of the most secretive parts of the automotive industry is the design process, and that’s why I’m here as a professional car designer, all-around curmudgeon, and resident wit, to try and pierce the veil. Good job really, as outside of this madhouse I’m essentially unemployable. The design process of a car is shrouded in secrecy for good reason: the same as in any other creative endeavor, OEMs don’t want to let on what they are up to before they’ve finished. They don’t want their competitors to know their intentions and would rather not risk a potential Osborne effect by damaging sales of existing models if customers realize something newer is coming along. There is a final good reason that is particularly apposite in the hyper-connected social media age: the risk of an almighty backlash if fans and enthusiasts of the brand don’t like what they are seeing.
What if a manufacturer wants to give customers and the press a tease of what they are up to? They might have an innovative design direction in mind, or an idea for a new model, and want to warm the audience up and gauge their reaction. The time honored method of doing this in the past was to release a concept car – a sneak preview of what is currently occupying the minds of the people who wield the marker pens. Depending on the reaction from customers and the press, they push it forward and a watered down version goes into production.
Or they might realize they’ve made a balls up so gigantic, the corpse of the chief designer is hidden inside a clay model and the concept itself is parked in a dusty corner of a forgotten warehouse never to be spoken of in polite company again. The days of huge convention halls full of splashy displays and drunken auto journalists are long gone: the death of the traditional motor show means these days most concepts exist solely as digital properties, with no physical form at all. But concept hard models are sometimes still used, internally for design approval, and externally for smaller-scale PR events. Thanks to the munificence of GM Design, we can look at a never-before-seen before concept being constructed. But GM being GM, as a great military man once said: I hope pain is something you enjoy. Because it’s a Pontiac.
The G8 That Never Was
Over the last couple of days, the excellent GM Design Instagram account has released a series of images showing the last Pontiac concept car ever created. Called the G8, it was completed at the GM Advanced Studio in California during 2008, shortly before the whole brand was taken out back and murdered. Looking through these images is not only a wistful look at what could have been, they give us a fascinating insight into how concept models are made and a tiny snapshot of the design process itself. So let me be your flashlight as we take a closer look.
First up, the sketches. Really these are renders as opposed to just sketches as they contain a lot of detail. Sketches typically refer to the quick line drawings you would do to get your initial ideas down. Some designers do this straight into Photoshop; I was always more comfortable doing mine on paper with a ballpoint until I had something I liked. Then I’d scan that in, tweak it and then start blocking in color, shadows and highlights, and additional details. What’s interesting here is although the first is done from a dramatic high front three quarter viewpoint, the second and third are straight front and rear views. You wouldn’t normally use these views as they tend to look a bit static. Not having worked for them I can’t speak to GM’s studio standards, but these front and rear views may be to guide the clay modelers. When Harley Earl was the chief, anybody who started modelling without orthographic plan views would be in for an outsized bollocking from the big man, so this way of working may be a hangover from those days.
A Real Studio Clay This Time
Speaking of modeling, here’s the clay model on the plate. The initial design stages of a concept car are the same as they are for a production model: sketches and renders are done, a favorite theme(s) is chosen, and an initial clay model is made. Peeking out through the rear windshield area and the taillights you can see the underlying foam buck. You can glimpse the front and rear wheel arches as well. The old-fashioned desktop PC behind the model is not for playing Doom during a coffee break – it’s for controlling the milling head (these days it’s all networked – no direct PC connection is needed). Look closely at the images on the boards at the back: the outlined image is for a completely different car, a sort of two-door hatch. Remember this is the advanced studio, no work on cars for production would have been done here, so this is an alternate proposal that didn’t make it.
This second image shows the clay model from the opposite side. Again, the foam buck is peeking out through the headlight openings, but if you look into the front wheel arch you can clearly see the metal armature that supports the whole model. In the background, several smaller-scale clays are being worked on. If you’ve got the time and enough modelers, fourth or fifth-scale clays can be worked up by hand much quicker than a full-size one. The designers use these smaller models to help them decide which theme should proceed to full size. At the top of the picture you can see the horizontal strip lighting, which allows for checking of highlights when the model is wrapped in Di-noc.
Onto The Hard Stuff
Obviously, then GM Vice President of Design Ed Welburn was happy, because the hard model is now being built. This is the point where the design of a production car, and the creation of a concept car begin to slightly diverge, so let’s take a minute to understand what we’re talking about. A concept car is an incredibly detailed, extremely expensive hand-built model. They may have limited lighting functionality or even the ability to be driven at low speed. It’s even possible to make them radio controlled, so they can perform all manner of magic tricks by an operator off-camera. It’s all a grand Oz-like illusion. We do use similar hard models as part of the design process of a production car, but they won’t have anything like the same level of detail or complexity at this stage. Their purpose is simply to capture the design at that point in time, for board approval.
Most of the large parts that create the interior will have been milled out of hard foam. It’s like that green stuff florists stick fake flowers in, but much denser, which means it can take and hold an extremely high level of detail and edge fidelity. Once the pieces are milled, they are painted in primer and hand finished in the paint shop. The bright blue foam padding for the seats is much softer making the edges rougher. Detail parts like controls, instruments and minor controls will have been rapid prototyped. Look at the gap between the inner and outer parts of the rear door – there’s a small block spacing the two parts, because these things are fragile.
This rear three-quarter shot shows the model is quite a long way towards being ready for paint and final trimming. The outer body panels are made from GRP, popped out from molds milled of the same hard foam then sprayed in primer and rubbed down by hand, much the same way as the interior parts. Although it feels a bit early for wiring in any electric items, the rear lights are lit – anything like this will simply be plugged into a battery and a switch hidden somewhere on the car. When I went to the Car Design Event back in March, the Kia PV5 Concept van that was present kept glitching its frontal display and flickering its interior and exterior lighting, so the guys looking after it simply turned the whole thing off.
From the front three quarter it looks like the headlights are lit as well. The metal trim around the grill and lower vents will be milled from a solid block. In the background it looks like there’s a paint booth behind the model, remember this is a smaller satellite studio so it must be self-contained – you can’t send half-built concepts back to the mothership halfway across the country for painting.
The Last Gasp Of A Dying Brand
The finished object, outside the famous rotunda at the Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. Every design studio will have an outdoor secure viewing garden where models can be scrutinized in the open air in natural light (or pissing rain). The model is sitting on a turntable, not because designers are lazy but to rotate the model so it can be observed from a number of angles with a consistent light source and background. The description on the Instagram post accompanying these images says this is a ‘fully functioning vision.’ You can glimpse the brake discs behind the typical concept big wheels. They’re not just there for verisimilitude – if this model can be driven (slowly) then you still need to stop the damn thing. It’s entirely possible that some poor Holden Commodore or production Pontiac G8 donated its Zeta organs so this concept could live. At Land Rover we did something similar with our Defender concept (never publicly shown) which was built on the shortened bones of V8 Range Rover Sport, including its complete engine and running gear.
Compare the finished interior with earlier images. Those acres of grey primer have been painted, trimmed and detailed. At arms length and without touching anything, outlandish shapes aside it’s indistinguishable from a real car, although trying any of those switches would have the effect of precisely fuck all. Apart from the driving controls my guess would be the only things that do anything are the door handles. I really like the distressed leather used, but not being a sealed surface it wouldn’t be practical for production. Finally, a money shot of any designer’s favorite part, the humongous wheels. They are wrapped in real road tires: another small lie but as Homer would say they were all part of a single ball of lies.
Ultimately we don’t know what the purpose of this concept was. Was it to be used internally, a last-ditch effort by managers to save the brand in the eyes of the board? Maybe shown in public to gain support for the same reason? It’s a slightly curious thing from a design point of view – typically GM-of-the-time heavy-handed, and it has a weird trunk-shaped hatch – not fully one thing or the other. The rear light graphics are straight from a Solstice, but the front is much more progressive and advanced. I don’t quite know what to make of it, but at least now you know how it was made.
I can’t help but think how fucking boring it must be to be in this business now. Most automotive companies have shifted all or most of their model lineup to crossovers. The rest are full sized trucks. And seeing as how full size truck buyers seems to have more conservative design interests the name of the game seems to be how to make the already massive trucks look even more massive and ” Angry”.
So that mostly leaves designing any number of forgettable, anonymous blob looking crossovers. There is not a single mass market vehicle I can easily think of that has any kind of appearance that I find even remotely interesting.
There are still a lot of companies doing really cool cars. I loved working at Land Rover even though we were in the SUV business because it’s such a strong brand. It’s not all crossover blobs, and remember we don’t get to see half the stuff that studios do. If you’re a creative person, and you have the requisite skills and aesthetic sensibility, it’s an incredibly rewarding environment to work in even if the products are not all exactly what you would choose given the chance.
And nothing of value was lost.
Good article, though.
Alright there’s only room for one cynical bitch around here and it’s me.
It is cool, but i feel like much of that comes from the exaggerated proportions. Once you drape this over a working package I wouldn’t expect it to be any kind of a missed opportunity. Seems to be the case of many a GM concepts from that time.
Given a few changes like the steering wheel and headliner to fit airbags along with a shortening of the hood, this thing looks production ready. Which makes me think that this was less of a functional concept and more of a production pitch. From what I know those were already rare in the ’80s, but by the 2000s basically nobody made them. The last car I can think of that would’ve debuted before this came out in 2008 would’ve been the Nissan C-Note Concept of 2003, which was a production pitch for the Versa/Tiida.
Fun to go through the steps, and I rather like this. I liked Pontiac when it was hitting and this seems like it would have been very cool and sold only ok at best because crossovers.
Not necessarily. Remember in the late 2000s crossovers were still seen as the exception instead of the rule in mainstream automotive design, and SUV sales were falling as gas prices rose.
But I doubt it would’ve been enough to save the brand because the design is too polarizing; not that GM would take the risk on something so radical…
This being a concept in the late aughts made me assume a release date around 2012, right when sedan sales were closing in on the cliff.
I’m really digging that matching worn brown leather on the dash and seats. I think that looks fantastic.
Yes very strong material choice.
I’m also very impressed with the linkages for the trunk/hatch being fully functional. Linkages can be a real pain in the ass to design.
I was on a project where we were 5 designers trying to come up with a linkage system. It took 153 iterations to get the basic design working and about 20 or so iterations to fine tune it.
On a concept for things like that you would just raid the parts bin.
I began reading this article feeling thrilled that you would throw such a juicy treat to Pontiac fans like myself. By the time I got to the photos of the model, I was furious that this thing never saw the light of day. Now I don’t know how to feel. Thanks? And go to hell? And I apologize, that’s just my emotions getting the best of me, and what I really meant to say was screw GM with a lamppost, the bastards?
Any make or model from any of the various divisions that I have ever admired was in spite of the fact that I loathe General Motors. GM is simultaneously the parent company to the makers of many of my very favorite automobiles, and also the reason why we can’t have nice things. And so much of the best stuff from GM brands was the result of people at the divisions, and sometimes even at dealerships, saying, “Piss off, General, we’re making the car we should have made in the first place and slipping it through the cracks.” GM’s whole modus operandi for most of my GenX life has been, “What? They’re building something interesting that we didn’t approve first? Well. We can’t have THAT.”
Have you read ‘On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors’?
No, but it sounds like I should. It seems as though my three word review of it would be, “Yeah, I figured.”
You have to get past JZD’s recalling of his own brilliance (although the book was eventually written and published without his permission) but it’s a real eye opener. I’m sure you can pick up cheap second hand.
“I’m sure you can pick up cheap second hand”
Try your local library. If your local branch don’t have a copy they may be able to get a copy from one that does.
Another good one is Paint it Red by Nicholas Kachman, it kind of picks up where JZD left off, dealing more with GM under Roger Smith in the ’80s. Focuses primarily on their sweeping plant demolition and reconstruction program and clumsy, heavy handed efforts to meet environmental regulations in their paint shops without switching to better technologies, but it also spends a lot of time on the general dysfunction and mismanagement within the company as a whole
Oooh don’t know that one, ta.
“… shortly before the whole brand was taken out back and murdered.…”
Humanely euthanized.
I originally wrote ‘taken out back and put out of its misery’. Matt punched it up. Rare instance of my original words not being strong enough, so keep this one for posterity.
I maintain that General Motors slowly poisoned Pontiac to death over the last thirty years of its life, then smothered it with a pillow in its hospital bed while no one was looking, poor old dear. It was for the best in the end. Let’s not talk about how we reached that end, but it was for the best in the end. GM was like a secretly murderous housewife in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or something. Got rid of Cousin Oldsmobile same way a few years before.
Yeah, Pontiac hadn’t built any excitement for quite a while. The Solstice, GTO and G8 were too late.
They sure created a lot of IDGAF though which is a whole different brand identity.
They had ribbed plastic, don’t forget the ribbed plastic. Also, head rests that were open in the middle
Random question for Adrian that’s actually inspired by Mercedes article on the Zero…
She named it Olive, and in the US it seems far more common to name your vehicles after female names. My impression is that in the UK it’s the opposite. Is that true?
Also finally after decades I now know where the term osbornne effect comes from, and it has nothing to do with Ozzie 🙂
I’m of the opinion only dull people name their vehicles (Miss Mercedes excepted of course).
Hey! My Tutuca would like to have a word with you…
Looks like a Pontillac to me.
Agreed
Maybe it died because feedback showed that people didn’t like to lay on the ground, reaching into filth to unlatch the bonnet.
There’s a Star Wars alien in my brain that looks like the front of this thing but I can’t drag it out.
well spotted on the shut lines, but they are never accurate or even always present on concepts. And this was never shown.
Um……. the bonnet is forward tilting. Yeah, that’s it. And if it were built today it would be powered and accessed five levels deep on a touch screen.
You da MAN, Adrian! Thanks for those source links!
You servant.
That’s a strikingly good looking thing. In typical GM fashion they kill their ideas just as they’re starting to get good.
It’s fine for what it is, but I’m not sure it has a Pontiac identity.
Yeah this feels like a combination of the angular Saturn Sky design language with a Pontiac grille. The taillights, especially.
I’m not sure Pontiac was even allowed to have an identity by then anyway, so how could you even say?
Still, I would be much happier if it looked more Banshee-like, maybe with a new take on honeycomb or snowflake wheels.
How hard it could be to make a Banshee out of, say, a Miata?
It looks slightly Cadillac.
I see your point, but then again, identities evolve. Just look at BMW.
I totally would have bought one. Looks great to my old eyes.
Thoroughly enjoy these peeks behind the curtain. The car is pretty good looking too. Too bad Pontiac had no idea what it was supposed to be doing at the time.
I recently bought a load of Chevy and Pontiac brochures from the early nineties. There is literally no brand separation between them. The rot was already setting in, but GM couldn’t see it.
I remember when GM announced the cancellation of the F body, citing poor sales. My immediate thought: “Poor sales? I literally can not remember the last time I saw a Firebird or Camaro commercial on television, or a print ad outside the pages of Hot Rod or Road & Track, and you’re telling me they don’t sell? Gee, I wonder why?”
Is that not where Buick and Chevy are now? The Trax and Envista are the same car only with a different flavor interior and shape. Very close in price point, too.
Isn’t China the only reason Buick is still around?
Yes and no. Historically for sure, especially in the 2008 restructuring, but nowadays Buick is falling off in China against the much techier domestic cars there, and GM seems to think that they can get more sales out of it here by pushing its pricing much lower to basically be a new Oldsmobile.
Wouldn’t a cheaper Oldsmobile be a Chevy?
Yeah that’s my point. Buick still is slightly more expensive than Chevy, but nowhere near where they used to be. That’s why I think they’re basically where Oldsmobile was right before it died.
Didn’t expect it, but love the styling. You can see elements of other GM models forged together. Too bad it was never produced.
It may have been mentioned in a different article, but what kind of clay do they use?
I’ve always been curious of the process that goes into auto modeling, thanks for the article.
It’s linked in the article but:
https://www.fibreglast.com/product/Chavant_Autostyle_Clay_1123
Thanks!
No handles on the rear doors – How was one supposed to open the Gate?
Handy wavy concept car bullshit magic.
the good and cool way — waving a card against it, waiting for a little white rectangle to show up, push on that and pull it open with the sharp edge of the sheet metal
Well, I love it.
Maybe its a trial balloon for bringing back Pontiac? a boy can dream!
Literally every comment on the two Instagram posts covering this are saying that. My cynical mind did have that thought, but I can’t see it. GM have got enough problems as it is.
Yeah agreed on that, but if they did I’d trade in my Niro (if they had a sporty hybrid)!
So you want an Aztek hybrid? You’re deranged.
LOL, was thinking more a sporty sedan!
You don’t?
At any rate, if you were going to choose just one of GM’s enormous portfolio of defunct brands to revive in the Year of Our Ford 116, one that was named, albeit indirectly, after a Native American chief and historically used loads of Native American imagery as part of its branding (and a stylized arrow head as a logo) would probably not be the ideal choice. If they had never stopped making it, maybe it would be fine, but bringing it back after such a long gap would be bound to spark debate around that.
Good point!
Or they could point out that the name comes from the city the company originated in (whether true or not as far as inspiration doesn’t matter, but I think it’s true)
random side trivia, the city of Detroit was founded by someone named Cadillac?!
Yes, it was, but the city was named after … etc
Cadillac was indeed named after Le Sieur Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (as was, obviously, the Book Cadillac Hotel), Henry Leland had a thing for naming his companies after historical figures he admired (eg, Lincoln)
I think they did it just to be mean – “Here’s a cool Pontiac they designed the year we decided to unalive them, that you were never going to be able to buy anyway, nyah nyah.” That’s so them.
Do I like it more than the G8 that was? No. But it’s still cool.
The world needs more pillarless sedans.
Great for concepts, a complete ballache for production.
Is it common for certain design elements to be re-used or come from another car?
I see the rear of this concept has similar ques to the Saturn Sky.
Buttresses, taillight shape, exhaust shape and style, plate location and curving rear that rolls under the car.
If shown just the rear 1/3 with no context I would have bet money it was a concept model of the Sky. But the Sky came out in 2006
I think this is more indicative of by this time, they didn’t really know what Pontiac was or what it stood for
It’s also baffling why they took inspiration from the Sky and not the Solstice.
I’m not sure they did. Similarities might just be coincidence? From what Adrian suggested, it may have resulted more from a lack of clear design direction for the brand at the time.
Which would also explain why the Solstice looked so completely different than any other model at the time.
Why did it get made? My guess is sheer inertia. GM is a pretty big ship, and big ships turn slooooooowly.
I get why you say that, but this would have been a phone call to stop. There were maybe twenty guys working in this, so unless the Ren Cen had absolutely no idea what the advanced studio was up to (a distinct possibility) that’s unlikely. It was finished at some point in 2008, so work probably would have started maybe 12-18 months prior.
In the front 3/4 I see a bit of CTS sedan, maybe some 5 series
Very neat article, particularly as follow up to the clay models one.
If you showed me only the 3/4 rear view, I’d have guessed it was an Acura concept.
Read that as ‘show me your rear 3/4 view’ for a minute, and you ain’t at that membership level yet.
Bahahaha
“Rich Corinthian leather”…