PORSCHE 928
“This was another E-type moment for me,” says Horbury, “and a huge inspiration for many car designers. By now, I was at the MGA consultancy in Coventry, working on Ford projects, and got sent to Ford’s HQ in Cologne for a few months. I’d seen the pictures of the 928, but never the real thing. On the first night, walking through the city with friends, we turned a corner – and there was this spaceship parked by the side of the road!”
The 928’s appeal was how well it integrated so much new design theory, says Horbury: the integral bumpers, the tail-lights sunk into the body and the way the corners were knocked off that so that from three-quarter rear, the last thing you saw at the front was the wheel. That was revolutionary.
“The 928 became a big influence around the world,” says Horbury, who remembers a night out with its designer, Wolfgang Möbius, when the car’s creator came very close to being run down by a woman driving one. “It certainly had a big influence
on the Ford Sierra, especially the XR4I we were doing at the time.”
Horbury reckons the original XC90 SUV was the pinnacle of Volvo’s new look but some didn’t think such a model was right for Volvo. However, US female drivers won
the day.
we spin them? A few days later, we came up with a system powered by compressed air, which was great. One thing I have against today’s diamond-cut designs is that they only present one surface to the onlooker, so when they spin, they become a blur.”
In 1981, Horbury took his 900 to live in the Netherlands, where the Volvo 480 was being designed and would soon be built (“we were proud of its ergonomically sound computer that didn’t force you to take your eyes off the road”). He remembers how, on Dutch roads, the Saab’s low header rail meant you couldn’t see overhead traffic lights without opening the sunroof. “Still, the hi-fi was great,” he recalls, “because it was enhanced by the car’s surround screen.”