If you read anything I write at all, you’ll know I’m not a big fan of electric vehicles. I don’t like the silence, the screens, the emotionless designs. I want to feel emotionally connected to the car I’m driving. However, talking with Longbow Co-Founder Mark Tapscott may have changed my mind about EVs.
Almost.
I met up with Tapscott at the Petersen Automotive Museum, where a two-toned racing green prototype of the Longbow Speedster was on display right in the lobby. He was a bit late due to a fiasco with Uber, but this gave me a chance to watch many museum-goers stop to admire the car. Many seemed drawn in. One guy took photos of it for a good 15 minutes. One kid even kept touching it, which was horrific. But again: people were drawn to the Speedster.
When I started speaking with Tapscott, he talked a lot about “theater,” his term for making the vehicle engaging despite the lack of an engine. This included a stick shift and no screens in the interior, giving it a nearly perfect 50/50 weight distribution. It was built to be a sports car that happens to be electric, rather than a sporty electric car. I was basically pretty convinced that Longbow cracked the code. It created a vehicle that bridged the gap between electric vehicles and driver’s cars.
But then we came to a disagreement.
Longbow doesn’t want to show emotion, it wants you to feel emotion
While discussing the design of the Longbow, Tapscott said it is just an “aesthetic demonstrator.” It will maybe look a bit different during production. Definitely cleaner. But the overall design philosophy would stay the same.
The front is expansive, the skin stretched without breaks or sharp lines, creating a classic 1960s feel. It does have that curvy, elegant, yet bold look of the luxury sports cars of that era. The skin stretches to the back, where the whole aesthetic changes. It’s futuristic and blunt. The two taillights on each side will become one (a total of two), creating a more cohesive and clean design. This would ensure that the look is more timeless. The Longbow takes from the past and the future.
It goes along with the brand’s 100-year car concept. Without interior screens and exterior gimmicks, this is a car that could be displayed for years to come. It’d never look bad. It’d never go out of style. It’d never be outdated.
There is a lot of inspiration behind this car. Tapscott and Daniel Davey used to work for Tesla, back when the first-generation Roadster was a thing. The board is full of CEOs from other brands, like McLaren and Lotus. It’s easy to see where all of these fit in to the Longbow’s design and performance. But then he brought up Ferrari.
“Ferrari is doing this thing where they don’t want faces on the front of their car anymore. I kind of agree with that direction,” Tapscott said.
Wait, what?! I responded that I really like it when cars have a personality. I mean, I own an NA Miata. I clearly like it when cars have a very distinct face. Maybe I’m biased, but studies would agree with me.
“When you give it a face, you give it a personality. People recognize it. The aggressive slanted eyes. Or it looks smiley. It makes you feel a certain way. We want everyone to feel a different way. So we strip that out.”
I pointed out that the Longbow Speedster is a bit featureless in the front (as previously explained), but it still sorta looks like it has a big smile. It sort of looks like a whale shark.
“Some people say it looks like a big smiling face,” he agreed. “So the top is coming out a few more inches and the lights are going to be even smaller than they are.”
WHAT!?!?! I couldn’t help but be amused at Tapscott’s determination to make the vehicle have no personality. They’d even change the front of the vehicle to ensure that. But, I pointed out, won’t that sort of fit in with the usual EV stereotypes? The futuristic cars with no emotions, nothing to connect with? That’s been a big issue with these luxury EVs.
Tapscott isn’t too worried about that. He pointed out that Bugatti has also explored this. No screens, no faces. It’s meant to just be a timeless design. Sigh, I guess.
Well, there’s no denying that Longbow is doing something right. I personally love cars with faces, but the Speedster was getting tons of attention. Way more than the Roadster behind it. Everyone was quite awe-struck with its design. And I have to agree that there’s nothing else quite like it. It’s hard to place it. Is it an older concept car? Is it a modern car? What even is it? I think it’s one of those cars that may leave you guessing till you step inside. Once you take a ride, you will most definitely know that it’s the future.
A look at what electric cars should be.
And a smiling whale shark, but I won’t mention that again.
