the site continues to acquaint you with the history of the automotive industry. New episode historical articles devoted to the development of body shape passenger car. In these publications, we will consider the main stages in the development of the automotive industry. It will be not only about the style of cars of different periods, but also about their social, cultural, engineering and technological features that directly influenced the design of the body.

Fortunately, history captures the first steps of the automotive industry. Since childhood, many have heard and know the names of people who forever changed the world. The first is Karl Benz and the second is Gottlieb Daimler. They worked in Germany at the same time in neighboring cities. Both designed, built, tested and patented workable powered machines internal combustion. The only difference is that Benz really was the designer of his three-wheeled stroller with a motor, and Daimler was the “manager”, under whose leadership the talented engineer August Wilhelm Maybach first created the “Daimler motorcycle”, and later the first four-wheeled car. They are officially recognized as the "fathers" of the car.

The dates of the appearance of the first vehicles are also known. They are evidenced by patent No. 37,435, issued on January 29, 1886 to Karl Benz, and patent No. 34,926 for a “single-track” carriage, issued to Gottlieb Daimler on April 3, 1885, and in 1886 for a four-wheeled one. It is worth noting that Benz's car drove a little earlier, in the same 1886, against 1888 at Daimler.

Tricycle with Benz motor

What were the first cars? Their appearance was strongly influenced by the design of the bicycle and horse-drawn carriage. Fairly light, reliable and well-developed, they were also associated in people with advanced technical advances those years. From the crews, cars inherited most of the names of body types.

Daimler motorcycle and four-wheeled car

Oddly enough, the cars of Benz and Daimler did not find popularity in their homeland. The inhabitants of the surrounding houses and villages were frightened by the loud pops of a running engine, and in general they were wary of the new miracle of technology. The inventors had to sell their patents to France, where the public showed much more interest in the new "attraction". It is worth noting here that in those years no one really thought about the transport functions of the car, treating it solely as entertainment.

It is in France that the car begins to acquire the status of an individual means of transportation, so it is not surprising that the French carriage masters own many discoveries and innovations in bodybuilding. For example, the first car with a closed body, which was the Renault Type B Coupe, or the technology for manufacturing body panels from aluminum alloys, which were lined with a wooden frame.

But back to the description of the appearance of cars of the late XIX century. The high and unstable body of the “vouturette” (in French “wagon”) was an elegant steel tubular frame and a small wooden platform installed on it with a pair of sofas located opposite each other. low power motor often located behind or under the seats. Wheels front and rear axle, due to the imperfection of the design of the turning mechanism, were of different diameters, there were absolutely no means of protecting passengers from dirt, dust and bad weather.

Later, when cars began to be used not only as recreational vehicles, but also for traveling over sufficiently long distances, radially bent wings made of thin wood, folding awnings and lighting lamps appeared. Along the way, it turned out that the common type of landing "vis-a-vis" is unsuitable for long trips, and the front seats began to rotate 180 degrees. As the speed of the machines increased, the size, weight and power of the engine increased. It became more and more difficult to place it under the seats, and besides, it required good cooling.

And here the real revolution was made by the French company Panhard et Levassor. In 1893, its chief designer, Emile Levassor, proposed a new type of car layout that was destined to become a "classic": the engine and cooling radiator were located in front, the torque was transmitted through the clutch and gearbox mechanisms to the intermediate transverse shaft, and from it chains on the rear wheels. Looking ahead a little, let's say that this design was finalized in 1898 by a young French engineer Louis Renault, who replaced the chain drive cardan shaft, thereby bringing the layout of those years as close as possible to what we have today.

Emile Levassor

The new design was to be seriously tested. In July 1894, Levassor's car, equipped with a Daimler engine, went to the start of the 127-kilometer race Paris - Rouen. Emile Levassor, who personally drove the car, came to the finish line, sharing first place with a car of the now widely known Peugeot brand, also equipped with a Daimler engine. Races at this time become not only spectacular extreme entertainment, but also a source of useful information for engineers who tirelessly continued to improve the design of the car.

In the next competition, along the route Paris - Bordeaux - Paris, held in 1895, Levassor won a well-deserved victory, having covered a 1200-kilometer distance at an average speed of 24.5 km / h. When he stopped the car and stepped on the ground, he said: “That was real madness! I did up to thirty kilometers per hour! At the finish line, in the Bois de Boulogne, a monument was erected in honor of Levassor, on the medallion of which the image of a car is carved, the racer himself, greeted by the crowd, and his words that went down in history.

Unfortunately, the race Paris - Marseille - Paris in 1896 was fatal for Emile. Having got into an accident, he was seriously injured and dropped out of the fight, and a few weeks later he died suddenly.

These races were also attended by cars with steam engines as well as pneumatic tires. The result of their participation was the understanding that gasoline engines are significantly superior to steam ones, but pneumatic tires, even despite the then imperfection of the design, significantly reduced the weight of the car, increased the level of comfort, speed and durability of cars. In addition, they ensured reliable grip of the wheels with the road.

Cars with a classic layout turned out to be quite heavy, the control became noticeably more complicated and the owners had to give way behind the wheel to professional drivers, and again take the back seat themselves. But short wheelbase boarded and disembarked passengers back row very inconvenient, so I had to turn to a “tonne” (French for “barrel”) type body, which passengers got into either through a door in the rear side, or by turning the seat adjacent to the driver to clear the passage to the rear compartment of the body. Looking ahead, let's say that the "tonne" was one of the last attempts to adapt the design of the old horse-drawn carriage to a new type of vehicle. It fell into disuse at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, when cars became longer and got wheels of the same diameter, which eliminated many of the shortcomings of early layout schemes.

At the beginning of the 20th century, almost all bodywork ateliers “came out” of workshops for the manufacture of horse-drawn carriages. Before 1903 car bodies, like carriages, were entirely wooden, metal was not used at all. At the same time, the share of consumers ordering closed bodies had increased significantly by this time. They were needed by doctors and business people who were forced to hit the road in any weather. Therefore, it is quite logical that, having vast experience in carriage production, the craftsmen began to transfer traditional technologies and methods of arranging a carriage closed body to automobile chassis, simultaneously copying the general style architecture. A striking example of this is the Brougham body type, which was invented in the first half of the 19th century by the English Lord Brougham, which became widespread in the United States.

Crew traditions were also strong: passengers did not sit next to the driver, at night the body was illuminated by carriage lights, and the front roof pillar continued down and visually separated the engine capacity from the passenger compartment. These were the classic rules of carriage architecture, which no one wanted to break.

However, original, purely automotive layout techniques also began to appear. So, around 1905, some manufacturers began to install engines not on canonical carriages, but on peculiar bogies, consisting of two longitudinal spars interconnected by several crossbars. The engine, transmission and suspension were attached to the resulting frame. In other words, two main parts of the car became distinguishable: a mechanical one - the “chassis”, and a body, which was installed as a separate, independent unit and was usually made by a third-party manufacturer. Moreover, there were no side doors yet and the front seats remained open from the sides.

On the basis of a single chassis, create a wide variety of modifications of passenger and even trucks. Handicraft production at that time coexisted quite peacefully with the tastes of well-to-do motorists, who continued to perceive a car ride as a leisurely horseback ride in the old fashioned way, and the huge height of the body, partly caused by the fashion for cylinders, did not bother anyone for a long time. But ever-increasing speeds gradually caused the cars to become longer and lower. And in 1906, another revolution took place in the world automotive bodybuilding - in England, the technology of welding steel body panels was applied.

While in Europe a new type of car layout was taking shape and new bodybuilding technologies were being developed, in the USA, since the beginning of the 20th century, the main direction in technology has been the creation of a mass, cheap, individual vehicle. The first success in this area can be considered the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, which appeared in 1901, the demand for which exceeded all expectations. Easy open body Oldsmobile was mounted on a pair of long longitudinal springs connecting the front and rear wheels. The design of the machine was subject to the Art Nouveau (modern) style that was fashionable at that time, which attracted potential buyers. In the first two years, 3000 cars were produced and the output continued to grow.

It is customary to call autodesign a preliminary, sketchy stage of creating a car model of its own unique and individual art form. Automotive design is based on the given conditions of rationalism and manufacturability when creating cars. Something without which the car cannot drive, as well as meet the requirements of buyers and regulatory authorities, must be provided in one form or another in the sketch, drawings and in the metal. Space is needed for the engine, wheels and other equipment, items and devices that ensure the comfort and safety of the driver and passengers.

The flight of fantasy of designers, their vision of beauty and following fashion follows and “flows around” everything necessary, functional and rational. But this is a two-way process. The emergence of new forms, proportions, individual details gives impetus to the search for new technical solutions and materials, as well as the "rearrangement" of existing ones.

It is most profitable for any manufacturer to create and sell large-sized things. It is also beneficial for designers - nothing limits the flight of fancy. But if there is a demand for miniaturization in society, and large cars are sold in small batches, then the company will change the production vector.

History

Despite the fact that cars began to be produced on a significant scale from the end of the 19th century, and therefore there was some design of them (at least as an imitation of a carriage or wagon), it is believed that automobile and transport design as an artistic design with a theoretical justification and as real business appeared in the North American states in the late 20s of the last century.

Ahead of all was the General Motors concern, which formed the corresponding division in 1926. A year later, the Cadillac La Salle, which struck everyone, was already released. Immediately after the end of World War II, automotive design began its triumphal march through European countries and Japan. Forty years later, all automakers, including the USSR, had design groups and departments. And in GM, more than one thousand four hundred specialists worked on this topic (in the Ford concern - 875).

Western auto design

In the first decades of the 20th century appearance the machine takes on the features familiar to us and is no longer a copy of the horse-drawn carriage. There is a fierce struggle not only for the type of engine used (steam, electric or gasoline), but also for the type of body - “salon” or open.

Automotive design of the 20-30s of the last century was defined by the workaholic Budd - this is a "streamlined shape" (Streamline). In the 40s, the Art Deco (decorative art) style also had a strong influence. This is a mixture of neoclassicism, cubism, constructivism. The design of cars embodies the severity of forms, unusual geometric solutions and luxury finishes (rare types of bone, wood, as well as aluminum, silver, and so on).

With the advent of the Cadillac Model 62, a new “aerostyle” began in the United States (at that time, military aviation was at the peak of progress). She also dictated fashion. England has its own style - "razor blade". A little later, the “fin style” appeared in the USA, which spread throughout the world and existed even longer than in the “homeland”. It is named so because of the presence of stylized fins of various fish or keel. Fins of different positions and shapes created a catchy appearance, but were extremely impractical.

Fifteen years later, “pseudo-sporty” style comes into fashion, spawning a numerous class of pony cars (pony cars). In parallel, in the 70s, there was a struggle between "muscular" (insidious killers) and "moths". Muscle-cars are mid-range 2-door models with engines from the older class. At this time, more attention was paid to the safety of the driver and passengers. "Muscular" defeated "moths", but those constantly appearing and being an alternative to the "insidious killers", have made significant improvements in security.

The laws of aerodynamics began to dictate fashion in the next decade. The streamlined, smoothed shape of cars reduces the resistance to oncoming air flow and gives significant fuel savings, which is becoming more and more relevant. In the last decade of the last century, the aerodynamic "era" continued, but the style of "biodesign" was added to it. This is an imitation of natural streamlined shapes, for example, the shape of rounded pebbles.

In the zero years of the current century, rational "computer" forms of cars became familiar - all 3 volumes clearly stand out. In parallel, there was a wave of "nostalgic" design - automotive design with a bias in the 30-50s of the last century.

At present, there has been a gradual departure from the styles of the previous decade in the direction of complicating the outlines of the body and increasing passive safety.

Russian car design

Automotive design in the USSR appeared much later than in the West. Until the 70s of the last century, a few automakers, both officially and unofficially, worked under "Western licenses". At the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, under the “wing” of NAMI, several interesting original domestic projects(NAMI-013, "promising taxi", "Maxi"), but they were not implemented in production. The PAZ-Tourist bus also failed to get into the existing models, although twice this concept bus received prizes at international exhibitions for innovation and originality. A slightly different situation developed at the Gorky Automobile Plant, where in 1961 the design bureau was headed by B.B. Lebedev. His projects trucks, including on caterpillar tracks, managed to be implemented.

Russian automotive design has always let down production, its sluggishness and technical backwardness. The picture does not change in the current century, in the age of the global division of labor and cooperation, in almost all areas of production.

The design of the appearance of the car of the future

Design is quite difficult to predict, since it is impossible to predict all the incoming factors and, most importantly, scientific discoveries. What is important now for body design? This:

• durability;
• ergonomics;
• security;
• minimizing production costs.

Everything can change dramatically with the introduction of such a factor as the invention of a new type of fuel and / or propulsion. And most of the vehicles, for example, "soar" up and hover in the air, as is often shown in science fiction films. Or is there something else going on. The design of the air car will immediately change, as will most of its principles.

If there are no drastic changes, then, most likely, by the end of the century, the electric motor will finally win, and there will be a final division into vehicles for super-policies (cities huge size) and everything else.

Salon design

The design of interiors can be carried out by the manufacturer of the car, as well as after its purchase at any time, although most often this happens at the stage of preparation for operation in parallel with its tuning. Leaving aside crazy ideas and radical alterations, the task of post-design is to further emphasize the style of the car (its particular feature) and/or the lifestyle of its owner. As a rule, there is enough refinement of individual details, but with bringing them almost to perfection in the Hi-End class. The inimitable texture and elegance change the feelings and, to some extent, the attitude of the driver and his passengers. And this is achieved, for example, with just inserts of reptile skin and ivory. Although not everything is so simple, and to create an appropriate atmosphere, a complex effect of many factors is needed.

Disks

Design car rims- an integral part of auto design. Not uncommon are wheels that are like the same car, but in a used condition. For example, US Nutek products cost just under $25,000 per four wheels. For sports cars Savini discs are very good. They look modest, but elegant, forged and incredibly light. For off-road vehicles, large, one-piece aluminum Dub wheels, which are constantly receiving awards at specialized exhibitions. Vossen produced by special technologies low cast, look sophisticated (chrome finish on black base) and innovative, and cost half as much as Nutek.

armchairs

Design challenge car seats is not only to give them the appropriate forms and functions for greater ergonomics and safety, but also to create an appropriate interior, including with the help of covers for them. The material for their manufacture and decoration can be used very different. As they say, for every taste, color and size of the wallet (upholstery fabric, leatherette, genuine leather). Comfort and piquancy are given by capes on seats made of natural fur. Eco-leather allows air to pass through, but prevents the penetration of water.

The design of tailoring car covers also consists in decorating the fabric from which they are sewn. Used as modern technologies, for example machine computer embroidery, and ancient ones. Even in ancient China, the technology of decorating fabrics by imposing pile on them (flocking) was used. The volume of drawings and the play of colors are achieved by using the “flock on flock” method.

Boats and automotive design

Since many automotive companies produce small-sized river and sea vessels and / or equipment for them, they also design them. Affordable and futuristic-looking boat Toyota Ponam-31 is shown in the photo.

A very original model is launched by Lexus, but it is much more expensive, and not only because of the finish (carbon, leather, wood). The luxurious yacht Arrow460-Granturismo produced by Mercedes-Benz is admired for its appearance. Aston Martin or Bugatti yachts are real works of art. And the products of Cigarette Racing (up to 160 km / h) and Marine Technology Inc (up to 300 km / h) are intended for those “obsessed” with speed, headwind and spray in the face.

Conclusion

So, we looked at the history of automotive design. Now it is at the intersection of high art and technical solutions, therefore, to implement the ideas of "geniuses", design engineers are needed who can shift the ideas of brainstorming groups and departments into a completely technical language. Painstaking and detailed study is the completion of the project.

Recently, there has been a tendency for women's thoughts, logic and vision of problems to come into autodesign (by the way, it fits into the general trend of the development of society). As they say, let's see and feel what they will create. Or maybe it's for the best, as some experts talk about the "decline" and others about the end of automotive design.

Indeed, is design work the appearance of cars that look like twins, differing only in the look and layout of the headlights, as well as in other minor details? Cars are beautiful in themselves, but very similar, and therefore faceless. It's good for mass production. But I want something else, new and untested.

I don't know if you notice how much auto design is getting more and more exuberant. I don't mind weird and riotous design in general. But it seems to me that in recent years, designers clearly do not know what to do. As a result, cars with a very strange and extraordinary design appear on the market every year. Maybe it's time to stop and come back for more simple solutions rather than experimenting with futuristic auto design?

If you look at all the cars that have been produced since 2000, you will immediately notice how drastically design has changed throughout the automotive industry every year.

First, all cars have increased significantly in size. Secondly, from the 2000s to the present day, car design has become unrestrained.

Yes, sometime in the mid-2000s, many car companies were trying to make cars with clean, rational geometric design. By the way, this simple style of cars was especially noticeable in the work of designer Jay Mace, who developed many Volkswagen cars produced from 1998 to 2005. But then modern car design began to progress towards a futuristic future.

Since then, the auto design of most cars has become more sculptural, and the car body has been constantly growing in size. Also since those years there has been a constant increase in the size of the front optics and vents in the exterior (real or imitation).

In particular, chrome has recently become fashionable again, which is becoming more and more in modern cars.

But most importantly, more recently, designers have taken the fashion to come up with strange body design textures, with a combination of torn lines.

Look at these cars 15 years apart. Here are cars from the 2000s and 2015 (2000 and 2015 BMW 4-series, as well as two Nissan generations Teana).

Pay attention to the design of cars from the 2000s. It is fresh, clean and concise, which cannot be said about the appearance of new cars, the design of which has become full of wavy surfaces (it often seems to me on the road that many new cars have damage on the body, but upon closer examination of the body parts, I understand that from - because of the uneven surfaces of the exterior elements, the light glares, which leads to an optical illusion).

Also notice how the headlights have grown modern cars. Including immediately catches the eye, how modern cars have grown in size. And so it happened with the models of any automaker. All cars since the 2000s have grown and stretched in size. But of course, many modern cars have received large radiator grilles, a lot of air intakes and much more.

You can also see the progression of auto design since the 2000s with the example Lexus car. Notice how the designers Japanese brand experimented with their products since 2000. You will see how everyone new car got more and more angles and different lines and curves.

By the way, maybe someone will think that I am trying to condemn modern design. No, I'm really just pointing out what's going on in the modern era of auto design. It should be noted that not all companies are mastering modern trends in auto design. In fact, each automaker experiments in its own way.

For example, Toyota in recent years, he has been experimenting very boldly, creating new models with an extraordinary futuristic appearance. Do you know why such a design is obtained in modern Toyota cars?

The thing is that the designers of this company began to mix the baroque style with lines and textures that are found in the wild. As a result, we got not quite ordinary cars. Although it is worth recognizing that every company in one way or another is currently going in this direction.

Take a look at the latest generation Toyta Prius and you'll see what the designers had in mind when they created the look of this controversial car.

The front part seems especially strange. hybrid car. For example, the new Prius has 8 main road headlights (4+4). Plus, in addition, the car received 18 more LED lamps on the bumper (9 on each side). And that is not all. The designers also decided that fog lights are not a relic of the past.

Well, if all this optics were placed on ordinary bumpers and a body. But new model Toyota Prius received a very complex configuration of the front bumper and grille. As a result, as it seems to me personally, the exterior design turned out to be too heavy, the elements of which, in principle, overload the appearance of the car. Therefore, it is not easy to understand the idea of ​​Toyota auto designers. Especially if you try to unravel the mystery of the designers who decided to equip the front of the Prius with design elements with different textured surfaces and different color schemes.

It seems to me (and many other brands) overdone in recent years. Although of course there is no dispute about tastes. However, this is not just my opinion. For example, many say that modern auto design has become somehow incomprehensible. Including well-known and authoritative auto experts, known throughout the world.

By the way, such bold experiments, which are currently being carried out by all automakers, are not the first time in the history of the automotive industry. For example, something similar has already been observed with auto design. american cars in the 1950s.

Look at the two cars below. Yes, both cars, of course, are made in completely different styles and are separated by eras.

But these machines actually have something in common. You know what?

Their auto design is very loud, defiant and a little crazy. By the way, if you don’t notice this on a 1950s car, then this is quite natural. After all, you did not live in that era. But it is worth noting that for the 1950s, the design of American cars was really very violent and defiant. And what is the result? As you know, cars of those years with exuberant design are a thing of the past.

The thing is that car buyers of those years were simply tired of the defiant design. And this, by the way, happened when the auto designers of American cars did not figure out how to further improve.

Approximately the same trend we are now seeing in the car market. It is quite possible that very soon the fashion for constant global outward change new cars, as well as auto designers and aircraft designers, will realize that too exuberant design cannot be constantly improved.

Most likely, in the next 20-30 years we will see that the design will become much more modest. True, this will have to wait before the car designers calm down, who are still happily experimenting, creating new era in auto design.

Yes, of course, modern design is based on high-tech and there is no escape from this. Every year we will see all the fresh and unoriginal ideas in the exterior of new cars. But nevertheless, I think that automotive companies sooner or later, the creative dreams of designers and constructors will have to be moderated a little.

At one of the shows of promising samples at AZLK, the then Minister of the Automotive Industry Vladimir Polyakov, according to eyewitnesses, said: “Where did you see such a car? There are no such cars!

The designers have deciphered the minister's idea: it is necessary to make cars according to foreign models, and not look for untrodden paths. In the USSR, as a rule, this is exactly what they did. But not always.

To make a fairy tale come true

It's no secret that all our cars, created before the Great Patriotic War, were copied to one degree or another from Western ones. Or rather, almost everything. In 1938, a young ZIS artist (the term “designer” appeared about thirty years later) Valentin Rostkov painted a very unusual and even avant-garde two-door roadster, which is commonly called the ZIS-Sport. The appearance of the car - in particular, the line of massive wings - followed the then American fashion, but in solving the front end with built-in headlights and an aerodynamic radiator grill, Rostkov not only did not copy anything, but even outstripped global trends.

It is not difficult to verify this, it is enough to compare with thoroughbred sports models those years. That's just the creation of Rostkov was not intended for mass production, and it is not a fact that then our industry would have mastered such a body.

This is a very important touch to the portrait of Soviet design. After all, artistic design, as this craft was once called, also implies technological development - bringing a product from a sketch to a commercial sample. Of course, it is impossible without a flight of fancy, but we are still talking about commodity cars, and not about exhibition concept cars.

As for fantasy, one of the first to dare to fly it in our country was an artist, engineer and famous popularizer of the car. In the 1930s, he, like many foreign engineers and stylists, became interested in the rear-engine layout, inspired by the avant-garde Czech Tatra. It was Dolmatovsky's authority that influenced the fact that for two decades the creation of cars of all classes with a rear engine has become one of the main directions for our designers.

Futuristic sketches resulted in the same avant-garde, but already running, really very advanced for 1951. (Something similar - the Fiat Multipla minivan - was put into production by the Italians only in 1956, but it did not gain much commercial success.)

It's one thing to admire unusual cars and quite another to buy and operate them. And to put on the conveyor in the USSR something similar to the conceptual NAMI-013 was completely unthinkable. It is hard to imagine a person who would voluntarily move from Pobeda or ZIM to such an unusual, and even structurally dubious, car.

Artists, of course, were eager to create, that's why they are artists. But from the leadership of the industry, as a rule, came the installation: to copy Western models. And there was a certain reason for this, since foreign designers had much more experience not only in creating new models, but also in bringing them to the series.

However, we must pay tribute to ours: they did not just copy, but deftly reworked foreign style, adapting it to our conditions, including production capabilities, and creating machines, albeit not the most advanced, but quite appropriate to the time. The most striking examples are and. And here are the ZIS products of the 1950s - a frank copying of American designs.

But the artists are not to blame! It was on such machines that those wanted to ride. It is hard to imagine that the leaders of the USSR would have preferred an avant-garde minivan, drawn by, say, the talented artist Eduard Molchanov: a somewhat strange combination of a wagon body and huge windows with whimsical curves, characteristic of the American style of the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. But something similar appeared in metal.

Ticket to life

The heyday of Soviet design fell on the era of the Khrushchev economic councils and the relative independence of industrial enterprises. Under the Moscow City Economic Council, a Special Art Design Bureau (SKHKB) was created, which worked on orders from MZMA, ZIL, and the Serpukhov Motorcycle Plant. There was a romantic upsurge in the factories themselves, as well as in US.

Two characteristic works of the early 1960s, brought to a small, but a series, are the Moscow and Ukrainian Start. It is very interesting to compare them, because the machines, at first glance, have a lot in common, but there are also very significant, and in fact - fundamental differences.

Both cars had car layout. Both did not escape the influence of American style (many European companies were also subject to it in those years): extensive radiator grilles, visors over four headlights.

But there are also differences. ZIL-118 Youth, which was worked on by a group led by one of the best Soviet designers Eric Szabo, in the process of fine-tuning to a prototype, became much calmer in lines and decor than in the first sketches. But the Start made a strange impression. Original? Yes! Remember? Certainly! But the artists turned out to be painfully eclectic this minibus, endowed with frilly features of American "cruisers". After all, the design implies a combination of beauty and rationality, and the Start has a trunk protruding, like a car, with defiant "keels". It would be nice if the engine was at the back, like in NAMI-013, but it was traditionally located for such cars - between the front seats. Habitual - more rational, more spacious, more harmonious than the Start.

In general, Moscow Youth is a professional and original work, and Start is the work of amateur romantics. There is no special originality in it, but there is a sharp eclecticism - a bizarre combination of several styles that creates, I repeat, a memorable, but disharmonious image.

Another important sign of the professionalism of the creators of Yunost is the ability to modernize the machine without a radical alteration of the platform, which was done in 1970. But it's hard to imagine how Youth could be modernized just a couple of years after its birth, when American "aerospace" breaks went out of fashion.

Modernized Youth ZIL‑119 19