Name: David Wong
Age: 39
Job: Designer, Nissan Design America, San Diego, California
Key cars: Nissan Urge, Nissan Azeal, Jaguar R-coupe
4Car - What's the most significant design element of your latest concept?
David Wong - "The integration of the main console structure on the Nissan Urge - the way it kind of pierces through the firewall and connects the engine to the interior and vice versa."
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| Fiat X1/9 |
4Car - Design influences?
Wong - "I'm in love with Italian cars and I'm not talking about Ferraris or Lamborghinis but old Fiats - over the years I've had a 124, X1/9 and a Lancia Scorpion. I love their design solution on a low cost. It's product design for the masses. I did my internship at Fiat.
"Gandini is a hero of mine, as is Gordon Murray - he's not even a car designer he's an engineering designer, but his cars come out like designers touched them. I own a mid-90s Renault Spider that influenced the Urge a little bit - with the exposed aluminium everywhere - plus Eames and Jacobsen chairs. I appreciate the Eames because they're almost engineered first and styled second, but they're done so well and look so graceful nobody ever looks at that aspect."
4Car - What attracted you to car design as a career?
Wong - "Movies. I grew up in the 70s with
Star Wars, and it was big influence on design as a sci-fi movie,
2001: A Space Odyssey too. Living close to the Canadian border (I was born in Canada and grew up between Seattle and Vancouver) we got a lot of British TV shows and they would play all the F1 races - which was not very common in the US at that time. That's an influence.
"I have an old dark red right-hand drive Lotus Esprit (like the iconic amphibious one from the James Bond film
The Spy Who Loved Me). That's probably why I'm a car designer."
4Car - What's the next big car design trend?
Wong - "Compromise. I think the most successful cars are precisely targeted - they don't try to please everybody. All the cars are getting so competitive and, as a tool, they're all so competent. Design should be more inspiring and apparent on future models."
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| Wong: "Renault is always on the cutting edge" |
4Car - What other car firm/design team do you think would be interesting to work for?
Wong - "I'm perfectly happy at Nissan. But I think Renault is always on the cutting edge. I appreciate the energy that's being focused on some of the Korean companies too. They must have a lot of young designers because I see fresh things coming out of there. Right now their brands are not established anywhere in the US, but in the next few years a lot could change. I see them almost as Toyota 30 years ago. No-one paid them much attention and next thing you know they own the world."
4Car - What car did you wish you'd designed?
Wong - "Lamborghini Urraco (1970) by Gandini - the first cab-forward sports car I'm aware of."
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| Robin Reliant - David finds this worse than the Aztek... |
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4Car - What car are you glad you didn't?
Wong - "Robin Reliant - the worst car I've ever driven. It has the same door handles as my Lotus."
4Car - What shoes are you wearing?
Wong - "I don't know. They're so new. My wife bought them and she packs my briefcase."
4Car - What watch?
Wong - "Diesel. They're disposable - $90-100 - you change them like shoes basically."
Related Links
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We get car designers at Detroit to speak for themselves about their cars, in addition to our comprehensive show round-up.
