After something of a close season for revolutionary (!) internal combustion engine concepts with prospects of dramatic improvements in power density, fuel economy and related benefits that automatically follow, we were recently treated to a re-emergence of the genre. Some while back I asked the question of what happened to all these projects and could we perhaps have reviews? There must be lessons to be learned, if the work is not too secret to be divulged and will l in future find myself asking the same question again, to include the more recent concepts?
Regarding the recent spate of design criticism I have before postulated that 'design' is a word that has become synonymous with 'appearance'; if it looks 'good' according to the ephemeral criteria set by modern marketing man, that is all that is necessary. Design in the old fashioned sense of functionality comes a poor second if it means departing from what is 'swish'.
John Gayfer, Alcester, Warwickshire
© PE Publishing, February 2010
