Peter Schreyer honoured at the RCA

cogarch

cogarch

Member
Peter Schreyer, designer of the A2, TT and 2000 model year A4, is to be given an Honorary Doctorate by the RCA's School of Automotive Design:

http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2007/06/26-peter-schreyer-honoured-by-rca/

This is excellent news. Schreyer has been incredibly underrated, not least by Audi themselves who chose to throw in their lot with the unbelievably elephantine and aggressive ugliness introduced by Walter de'Silva.

http://st.blog.cz/t/tuning-sport.blog.cz/obrazky/331588.jpg

It's inconceivable that the company producing cars like the Q7 could have invented the A2, while in my opinion the beautiful A4 has been subjected to considerable design vandalism under de'Silva's watch. Understandably feeling unappreciated, Schreyer has now moved on to Kia, where the first fruits of his work can be seen in the Cee'd Convertible.

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/07/geneva-motor-show-kia-lifts-the-lid-on-the-ex_ceed-convertible/
 
I absolutely agree with you - Walter D'Silva has now thankfully completed his final design for Audi, the decidedly mediocre A5 (a symphony of lines my ar*e!).

I don't know who Audi have up their sleeve for the next design director, but it needs to be someone with the originality of thinking that Peter has.

I think we all agree that the A2 and TT are design classics, destined for pride of place in motor museums of the future.

Is it just me who thinks that Audi have become a reactionary company now - the forward thinking of their r&d and design teams has gone west, instead of leading from the front, they now choose to follow in the footsteps of others (the Q7 being the prime example - BMW has the X5, MErc have the ML so we must have something to compete. Why introduce a dinosaur at a time when big SUVs have become the driving equivalent of leprosy?!)

Sadly, it seems that Audi have become a company set on beating their rivals at sales, rather than being a genuinely innovative company, introducing new ways of thinking to the public.

Ho Hum,

Mike
 
Audi's last innovative car was the A2 and many considered it a flop due to poor sale and reasons we've talked about many times before. The TT was a success but it wasn't innovative, it was essentially a Golf in a 2+2 configuration. However, it has many features carried from the concept to the showroom and created a model to stay in the Audi range. I would say A2 was excellently invented while the TT was brilliantly executed.

But having said that, Audi has always played catch up. A2 to chase the premium mini aka A class. TT to catchup on the small sports coupe slk/z3. Now A5/Q7 for obvious markets. Only the A3 (surprisingly!) was different, introducing the premium hatch back class. But when the corporation is chasing the market, it was Peter Schreyer who brought along something truely unique and different; something to shout about as oppose to 'just another A Class' or 'just another small coupe'.
 
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