Bangle and his “machais” (L-R): David Robb (BMW Motorrad), Adrian van Hooydonk (BMW), Ulf Weidhase (BMW M and BMW Individual), Ian Cameron (Rolls-Royce), Gert Volker Hildebrand (MINI)
Chris Bangle has quit BMW, and apparently the entire auto industry as well. Succeeding his position as chief of design for the entire BMW Group (including MINI and Rolls-Royce) is Dutchman Adrian van Hooydonk, who is the BMW brand’s design chief.
52-year old Bangle who has worked in BMW since 1992 is not moving to another car company but is instead leaving to pursue his own design-related ventures beyond the auto industry. Among the work produced by the BMW design team under van Hooydonk’s leadership include the new F01 7-Series, the new Z4 and the upcoming BMW PAS.
This story by NY Times reveals that many of BMW’s controversial designs that made it into production under Bangle’s watch have erroneously been attributed to him. He merely approved it. The “Bangle butt” should more appropriately be called the “van Hooydonk butt”. As for the whole controversial “flame surfacing” design, which many have said is a mere collection of random surface shapes to conceal an unimaginative design, the article claims that to be the responsibility of another American, Chris Chapman.
Look after the jump to check out both Bangle and van Hooydonk’s CVs.
Adrian van Hooydonk’s CV
Chris Bangle’s CV
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
1st …. hehe it is a good news for old die hard fans of BMW but looking at the latest 7 series … flame surfacing is there to stay
i think change is sometimes for the better. and the flame surfacing has certainly grown on me.
before this, he worked on the Fiat Coupe which is a pretty nice car.
wonder where he taking his designs to.
But i like him,
he give new spirit to BMW and better engineering
We’ll miss his revolutionary yet controversial designs, salute him…
initial reaction to chris’s new age bmw designs were gasps of horror but after a while the idea sunk in and it is now mainstream with many other car brands copying his flame designs.
kudos to him for effecting change so drastically and today, it can be considered a benchmark for bmw design.
i loved the work he did for the fiat coupe too. it remains one of my favourite car designs of all time. clean neat and efficient.
renault shud hire him for volvo and wait for interesting result
The only Bangle’s work worth admiring are the Fiat Coupe Turbo & BMW 5 Series.
The rest as most people would say, are a set of disaster…
Good Bye!
Yup the E90 rear is hideous to say the least but the coupe version is sexy tho. But the bigger front grill design as evident on the latest 7 series is just ugly as well … hopefully they don’t muck things up with the next 5 series aka F10.
of course it not be the same again..
for better or worst.
but I do believe, Bangle is not the only one.
there’s plenty of newbie or underdog one.
they will shining later..
the matter is WHO?
Theopilus Chin perhaps? :p
is this the person who ruin the nice looks for the beemer ?
if yes , yahoo !
if no, haix ..
bye bye
No idea why BMW take this fiat guy in the first place. Sure Fiat coupe looks good. But that is just it
quits or budget cut??
Bavarian thinks coz he’s American, he’ll design something Americans would like. Admittedly, BMW never had a better chance at this market than when he was with them. So Shareholders love him. Purists hate him. He has put the M3 way above everybody else’s reach except for Americans. The rest of the world who had loved the marque long before the Americans heard of it, were left to fend for themselves. Without doubt he had left his mark. Good or bad, its still a mark.
The guy 3rd from right (Ulf Weidhase?) is looking menacingly/passionately at Bangle. Either he’s angry or maybe thinking of ‘Bangle Butt’. Just kidding.
I’ve always thought that ppl love BMWs he designed cuz their engine n overall driving gets better. Design-wise, there’s many out there that are better-lookin, bt those rivals nvr drive as good as BMWs, so yeah.
In a brief telephone interview on Thursday morning, the designer Christopher E. Bangle said he left BMW “with no bad blood.”
Speaking from California, where he was attending the TED conference, Mr. Bangle said his departure did not stem from differences with executives or others at BMW. “It has nothing to do with how the company works inside or with me,” he said, adding that he is not going to another car company. “It was a moment I have been planning for a long time.”…
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/no-bad-blood-with-bmw-bangle-says/?scp=1&sq=chris%20bangle&st=cse
I think it’s a good time to out of BMW for CB, cause the all-new current projects are Project I (Isetta) and 3er F30. Not hard work year. You can see the situation 2-Years-Before-Start-Of-Production (from pre-faze “Advanced Concept Development” to “Virtual Workshop”) on my site’s table here
http://imelekhov.h17.ru/ilya_flame.html#crono3
(sorry, article on russian only, but the tables are english…)
bye bye bangles