It’s so depressing these days, just looking at highways and seeing all the round, lifeless SUVs and sedans. I mean, even Ferrari gave in and revealed the Luce, an oversized vacuum with no aggression or beauty to speak of. I often wonder why automakers moved away from the wedge-shaped vehicles of the 1980s, which had way more dynamic design.
It’s probably a bit of nostalgia, but I do genuinely feel those cars had more personality. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any confirmed reason that wedge-shaped cars were tossed aside for the more friendly, round, safe designs of today. But there are a few theories.
Pedestrian safety regulations
This would make sense, since safety regulations definitely ruin a lot of the fun in the United States. Pop-up headlights were confirmed to be discontinued over safety concerns. While never “banned” anywhere, the protruding edges and shape of the pop-ups were considered a liability. Imagine getting hit by a car. Now imagine getting hit by a car with eyes.
In many regions (mostly in Europe), sloped hoods are part of safety regulations, and aggressive, flat-front clips are considered very dangerous for pedestrians because they cannot deflect the impact. Now, Europe is fighting against the ever-increasing height of SUVs for similar safety reasons.
Over in the United States, our vehicles are getting larger and more bland due to similar safety concerns. SUVs are built to meet government regulations and achieve better crash-test ratings, absorbing impact forces much better than sharp edges.
Meanwhile, wedge-shaped vehicles were just too low and awesome to fit incoming safety components like crumple zones and side-impact beams. Ug, yawn.
Alright, America. We’re safe now. But at what cost?
Fuel efficiency
Here’s another boring reason that cars are smooth spheres zapped of personality. If you truly want an aerodynamic vehicle, you need it be smooth and round. The teardrop shape significantly reduces drag, improving a vehicle’s fuel efficiency, EV range, and all that boring crap.
This was a huge reason why Ferrari decided to abandon beautiful and aggressive vehicles for a Nissan Leaf dupe. The supercar brand claims that the Luce is its most aerodynamic vehicle yet, despite looking like an oversized, depressed vacuum.
Wedge-shaped vehicles look fast. They have that pointy, aggressive, ready-for-action stance. But they have poor airflow compared to round, boring vehicles. Well, according to wind tunnel data. Not according to our hearts.
Space and design
Finally, wedge-shaped vehicles are just not practical. Not that we care. But when it comes to pleasing the general American public, automakers knew they needed to make vehicles with more headroom and cargo space. Wedge-shaped vehicles were too low and cool.
With more automakers turning to round, oversized, lame-o vehicles, wedge-shaped designs were becoming increasingly difficult to manufacture. Most manufacturers use flat sheet metal and gigacasting, and all this other stuff, so the wedge-shaped vehicles’ complex curves were just too expensive and time-consuming. This explains why most mass-produced cars are blobs, and most museum-worthy supercars are full of edges.
So… I guess that’s that. Wedge-shaped vehicles are just too dangerous, cramped, and expensive to make. Or, as I like to say, Americans just don’t want anything cool anymore. Enjoy your Luces. Ug.
