WELCOME TO THE WORKSHOP

Where the team is rolling a Multipla in glitter…

Design. Art with a function. On a motor car, styling is the first thing you see and often, the main thing you remember. It is hugely important and, when manufacturers get it wrong, it can cost millions. Which is one reason why design

‘fails’ are memorable these days, because they are so obvious, so rare and so crucial to success. Focus groups and digital technology have built in a fail safe – which means that daring eccentricity has almost ceased to be an option. This is a shame. It has made the world a more boring place.

In this issue we are celebrating those cars that refused to be normal. Cars that some see as being ugly. Quirky designs that function perfectly well, but that have boldly driven away from the traditional routes – and inhabit the world of the strange.

This is why we are all polishing my old Multipla. I have just bought it back from a friend, because, well, I am so fond of the design. Hear me out.

Yes, the Multipla might look like a pair of mating frogs, but it is, in fact, brilliant. It has superb road manners thanks to its wheel at each corner. No MPV has better visibility, as there’s loads of glass space. But, best of all, its maximisation of interior space is pure genius. This is a car that Issigonis would have been proud of – it’s a big, tall Maxi.

Pity Fiat ruined it. Despite being basically the same, the cosmetically redesigned Multipla, (the sensible one), is vastly less interesting. Same car, but homogenised and made palatable to the mass market, the quirkiness removed. Neutered, gentrified: dull.

‘Yes. My body is my tool. The tool is – sponge.’ James ‘Warhol’ Walshe ‘It’s like everything and nothing at the same time.’ Danny ‘Jules’ Hopkins ‘This is a design cathedral: I am taking communion.’ Matt ‘Tate Modern’ George ‘Not so much a car… more, a feeling, an event!’ Matt ‘Emin’ Tomkins