Jalopnik: Chris Bangle

24 Hours of Lemons Winner Trades Roles With Chris Bangle

Murilee Martin — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:00:00 EST

That's right, folks- rumor has it that Jack Baruth, journalist, member of the winning team at the Flat Rock 24 Hours of LeMons, R8 driving instructor to yours truly, and our very own ViergangFuchs, will be swapping lives with controversial BMW designer Chris Bangle, as part of a new reality-TV series entitled Wait'll The Shareholders See THIS! Look for rollcages and 6-point harnesses as standard equipment on the 2010 models. [Dubspeed Driven]

Chris Bangle: Hero Or Villain?

Jonny Lieberman — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:30:02 EDT

Somehow Strike Week morphed into BMW Week here on Ye Olde Jalop. Fine by us. Driving down the 101, 110 and 10 Freeways yesterday we saw a Bentley Continental GT, a Ferrari F430, A Ferrari 550, a Gallardo and no fewer than 17 BMW 745/750s. I'm telling you, in certain Los Angeles zip codes there are more big-butt Bangled Bimmers than Camrys. And why not? If you've got it, flaunt the hell out of it. And yeah, I realize I am in the minority, but me still thinks the 7-Series is a seriously hot tamale. That said, I find the 5-Series goofy looking, the 6 half-baked, the Z4 like a nurse shark and the 3 eye-damaging. Though I do find the Mille Miglia Concept to be the bee's knees. But, as always, what do you think?

If Cars Are Art Then Chris Bangle Is -- What Exactly?

Ray Wert — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:30:00 EDT

After watching the above video from Chris Bangle talking about cars as art, and getting lost somewhere around where Bangle starts talking about making love, today's Question of the Day's all about you helping us answer something via word association. Help us to finish the phrase:

"If cars are art then Chris Bangle is ________?"

Should be easy enough — we've already got a few words we'd like to add to the end of that there question.

[Do you have a question you want answered? Email it to tips@jalopnik.com with the subject line "QOTD"]

Related:
Bangle Smitten?; more Question of the Day madness [internal]

Bangled Airbus: BMW Design Shows off Airline Interior

Mike Spinelli — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:17:17 EST

Watchers of the upscale, Born Rich, found a shot of an Airbus prototype with an interior that's the product of BMW Designworks, the company's artsy-fartsy division headed by director Chris Bangle. Designworks, which pens everything from watches to lamps to cars and motorcycles fitted the A350 twinjet with spacious overhead bins, flexible lighting schemes and a bar, in a style destined to be known as "Smurfy-modern." The plane's insides will be unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2006 expo in Hamburg next month.

New Airbus with BMW Interiors [Born Rich]

Related:
Jalopnik Learns at the Foot of Bangle [internal]

Bangle Smitten?

Mike Spinelli — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 10:49:20 EST

World Car Fans caught a shot of someone who looks an awful lot like BMW's design chief Chris Bangle checking out the wares at Ferrari's Geneva show display. Will his next generation of Bimmers be influenced by the swooping lines of Pininfarina's Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano, or by the roundels on the model's blouse. Enquiring minds, and all that.

Bangle at Ferrari [World Car Fans]

Jalopnik Learns at the Foot of Bangle

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 23:59:40 EST

Propellerhead design guy Chris Bangle's earned his fair share of grief over BMW's most recent aesthetic direction. And even he admits that he could've picked a better name than "flame surfacing" for the look of the latest Bimmers. We also think the 6-Series is ugly. But having said that, we think that Bangle's one of the most fascinating, divisive and influential figures on the automotive scene today, so the morning speech that Bangle was scheduled to give was probably our #1 must-attend of the whole two-day press hoopla f te thing.

We chatted with Automobile's Robert Cumberford before the meeting, a thoughtful guy (and former car designer) whose analysis we generally like, even if we occasionally disagree with him. When we mentioned as much, he replied, "Well, I'm almost always right. And even when you think I'm wrong, I'm probably right." Ah, the life of elder statesmen of the trade, puttin' the young ones in their places. The bitch of it is that he was right.

Bangle, on the other hand, seems to be an exploratory mind; pointing out that automobiles were in their baroque period a half-century into their existence; using architecture as the yardstick that drives car design. He then equates the flame-surfaced Bimmers with the Bilbao Guggenheim. He goes on explain that surface is a cardinal tenet of designing automobiles; that "Surface is really structure revealed." Which, given high-end rod shops' penchant for metalfinishing and repetitive block-sanding of coats of paint, makes sense, because in that realm, the surface dictates to the viewer what the structure underneath is, even if that's an illusion.

It'd be too dense and detailed to even attempt to replicate what Bangle ran through during the course of his time in the short space here. But watching him flip through slides like a maniac while chattering almost stream-of-consciousnessly into his Queensr che-esque Burger-World mic, but it was nevertheless a fantastic intellectual romp through both art and industrial history. He even threw in a bit of plastic surgery, giving Audrey Hepburn a subtle nosejob to point out the human response to rightness of form.

Later that afternoon we caught up with him and mentioned, "You know, I really enjoyed your talk. But it was a bit like listening to a Bad Religion song." He looked at us, nonplussed for a second. Then his brow unfurrowed; his ready smile unfurled again and he replied, "That's it. I'm a bad religion."