DESIGNING THE ICONS

WHEN MUSING UPON THE MAKE-UP OF ANY automotive icon it’s natural that the conversation starts with design. It’s the way the human mind works: we’re often told not to judge a book by its cover, but we forge right ahead and do it anyway.

But what of the guys who create those covers? What do car designers think about the business of producing an icon? Can you pick up a pen and proclaim, ‘Today I shall style an icon’? And if not, are there visual flourishes and necessities that give your creation a fighting chance of one day becoming iconic? What obstacles stand in the path of a car design achieving societal greatness, and what other factors are involved?

To ponder the essence of an icon, we’ve assembled a small group of car designers who have – whether they care to acknowledge the fact or not – created iconic cars. We have Frank Stephenson, whose repertoire includes the Maserati GranSport and MC12, new Mini, Fiat 500, Ferrari F430, and McLaren’s MP4-12C, P1, 675LT, 570S and 720S. Also joining us is Ian Callum, the man behind the Aston Martin DB7 and Vanquish, and Jaguar’s XK, XF, XJ, C-X75, F-type, XE, F-Pace and I-Pace. And last but by no means least is Peter Stevens, whose back catalogue includes the McLaren F1, Jaguar XJR-15, Lotus Esprit Mk2, Elan M100 and Excel SE, the Le Man-swinning BMW LM99, MG’s X-Power SV and ZT-T, and with Prodrive the exterior packages for the 1997 WRC-winning Subaru Impreza rally car and later WRX STI road cars.

All three have been in the game a long while and therefore know better