DARK STAR (introduction)
*****
DARK STAR
*****My five-seat, five-door concept had no name. These days, among my flat-panel designs, that's unusual -- but sometimes the naming of a vehicle is more difficult than preliminary conceptualization. The other night, while watching THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE, very near the end as the film was winding down it became obvious that this car should be called Dark Star...
[THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE in a larger format here: http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=7y7x85v6og]
I'd considered the using the name for this car before but had dismissed it, partially because I'd used it for a sports car drawn only a few times, years and years ago. Being that I used to call my larger fantasy the 'Eclipse Motor Foundation', it was a perfectly natural model designation (I think I may have considered 'Dark Star Motors' at one time, as well)...
Back to the movie (spoiler alert -- switching to a less visible text colour to make this part easier to ignore): It reveals that celestial bodies and phenomena are electric in nature -- that our Sun, for example, is not (as is widely believed) a nuclear fusion furnace, but rather an electric plasma 'event'.
Needless to say, I was inspired. There are countless references to a 'dark star' in our culture, including one song by the Grateful Dead and another by Crosby, Stills, & Nash. There is the theory of a 'brown dwarf' star lurking about in an extreme, off-plane orbit within our solar system...
Plus, Tesla Motors has codenamed its upcoming five-passenger sedan 'WhiteStar', so what better name?
Dark Star will be different from WhiteStar in many ways, their main similarities being seating capacity and electric power. WhiteStar may or may not have all-wheel-drive, and if it does, it may very well be a conventional system running off a single motor; Dark Star will employ two motors, one at each end. The 'extra' motor and transmission, in my estimation, will not weigh more than the extra componentry needed for conventional all-wheel-drive.
WhiteStar is a four-door sedan. Dark Star is a five-door 'hatchback', and will be shorter in length. Whereas the Tesla sedan will seem to have larger cargo capacity in its trunk, folding down the rear seatbacks of Tellurian five-door will provide ample room. The tradeoff is decreased passenger capacity in that configuration, but remember, the Dark Star can fit in a smaller parking space.
Why is Dark Star not a sedan? There is already a five-passenger sedan in the Tellurian Motors lineup. The Time Further Out is more upscale and fits in a different segment. Dark Star, instead of being sort of like a TFO with the trunk and part of the nose chopped off, has its own unique architecture.
Yes, it's reminiscent of many hatchbacks of the past, which I personally think is part of its appeal. I'm sure that many share my fondness for the folded-paper designs of the late 70s and early 80s, and will enjoy my 21st-century take on the style.
Okay, I'm about to rant yet again about the current state of automotive 'style'...
On second thought, never mind.
You'll have to see it -- and on that note, I have to apologize once again for the dearth of images in this space. I could try to tell you that I want to keep my cards close to my chest, but that would be bullshit. I just don't have enough images as yet, outside of those in my mind, to share.
Suffice to say, at this point, that my main inspiration was the Lancia Delta -- which if you've never heard of, I'll understand. Giorgio Guigaro was responsible for that, as well as the original VW Golf (Rabbit) and Scirocco and (among many, many others) the Isuzu Piazza (Ace of Clubs). Picture a trapezoid atop a rectangle, off to one side, for the sideview, and you're partway there.
Once again, the construction technique involved is the major theme behind the designs. You can refer to earlier posts for details...
Phil Smith
September 30, 2007
November 18 update: I discovered a while ago that the code name for the Tesla Roadster was Dark Star (followed by White Star and Blue Star for subsequent models) so this Tellurian model will again go unnamed, perhaps until one is built...
[THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE in a larger format here: http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=7y7x85v6og]
I'd considered the using the name for this car before but had dismissed it, partially because I'd used it for a sports car drawn only a few times, years and years ago. Being that I used to call my larger fantasy the 'Eclipse Motor Foundation', it was a perfectly natural model designation (I think I may have considered 'Dark Star Motors' at one time, as well)...
Back to the movie (spoiler alert -- switching to a less visible text colour to make this part easier to ignore): It reveals that celestial bodies and phenomena are electric in nature -- that our Sun, for example, is not (as is widely believed) a nuclear fusion furnace, but rather an electric plasma 'event'.
Needless to say, I was inspired. There are countless references to a 'dark star' in our culture, including one song by the Grateful Dead and another by Crosby, Stills, & Nash. There is the theory of a 'brown dwarf' star lurking about in an extreme, off-plane orbit within our solar system...
Plus, Tesla Motors has codenamed its upcoming five-passenger sedan 'WhiteStar', so what better name?
Dark Star will be different from WhiteStar in many ways, their main similarities being seating capacity and electric power. WhiteStar may or may not have all-wheel-drive, and if it does, it may very well be a conventional system running off a single motor; Dark Star will employ two motors, one at each end. The 'extra' motor and transmission, in my estimation, will not weigh more than the extra componentry needed for conventional all-wheel-drive.
WhiteStar is a four-door sedan. Dark Star is a five-door 'hatchback', and will be shorter in length. Whereas the Tesla sedan will seem to have larger cargo capacity in its trunk, folding down the rear seatbacks of Tellurian five-door will provide ample room. The tradeoff is decreased passenger capacity in that configuration, but remember, the Dark Star can fit in a smaller parking space.
Why is Dark Star not a sedan? There is already a five-passenger sedan in the Tellurian Motors lineup. The Time Further Out is more upscale and fits in a different segment. Dark Star, instead of being sort of like a TFO with the trunk and part of the nose chopped off, has its own unique architecture.
Yes, it's reminiscent of many hatchbacks of the past, which I personally think is part of its appeal. I'm sure that many share my fondness for the folded-paper designs of the late 70s and early 80s, and will enjoy my 21st-century take on the style.
Okay, I'm about to rant yet again about the current state of automotive 'style'...
On second thought, never mind.
You'll have to see it -- and on that note, I have to apologize once again for the dearth of images in this space. I could try to tell you that I want to keep my cards close to my chest, but that would be bullshit. I just don't have enough images as yet, outside of those in my mind, to share.
Suffice to say, at this point, that my main inspiration was the Lancia Delta -- which if you've never heard of, I'll understand. Giorgio Guigaro was responsible for that, as well as the original VW Golf (Rabbit) and Scirocco and (among many, many others) the Isuzu Piazza (Ace of Clubs). Picture a trapezoid atop a rectangle, off to one side, for the sideview, and you're partway there.
Once again, the construction technique involved is the major theme behind the designs. You can refer to earlier posts for details...
Phil Smith
September 30, 2007
November 18 update: I discovered a while ago that the code name for the Tesla Roadster was Dark Star (followed by White Star and Blue Star for subsequent models) so this Tellurian model will again go unnamed, perhaps until one is built...
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