#9
by julius
Proovisin veel. Google Photos faili asukohaga link tundub töötavat vaid ajutiselt. Näis, kaua nüüd. Aga väga tore, et regamisega korda sai.
See tulede taustasaaga oli keeruline tõesti. Enrico Fumia rääkis hiljuti pankrotti läinud ajakirjas Modern Classics:
The signature front headlamp arrangement came close to not happening. It only came about as a result of a chance conversation during the Audi Quartz project many years earlier. ‘I went to the Carello factory in Turin to ask about the feasibility of my thin horizontal headlamps based on my renderings,’ Enrico explains. ‘They didn’t want to take the risk and say everything was ok.’
Though the Quartz was a concept, it was intended to hook Audi into series production, so it had to be feasible. It looked like Enrico would have to use standard headlamp technology of the time, which he deemed too old, so he asked if Carello had some innovative research prototypes. ‘It was one of the luckiest days of my career. Four lamps like a camera lens, I’d never seen it before. I verified that they worked and were feasible, but they were 10 times more expensive than standard ones.’
It was January 1981. By March those poly-elliptical lamps were unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show on the Quartz, but it took time for the technology to arrive on production cars. ‘Six years later they were not yet in production, but I knew they were feasible. This is why I pushed them on the 916. They are like my signature on both projects.’
There were pushbacks from the technical team. ‘We’d had the Spider and GTV design approved by Vittorio Ghidella, then Fiat Group chairman, on 8 July 1988,’ says Enrico. ‘But in November, Alfa’s “expert” technician declared that it was impossible to mount them, because Bosch wasn’t able to make them. The only alternative would have been to replace them with something similar to the 164 ones.
‘Then I saw small pictures of the new Nissan Cefiro equipped with similar poly-elliptic lamps.’ Enrico got in touch with Honda (Pininfarina’s only Japanese automotive client), asking for details on who supplied Nissan’s lamps. ‘Without asking me why, in less than a week I was sent a Cefro headlamp. I ran to the Arese factory with it, and the “expert” was amazed, but his arrogant comment was that the lamps were too small to work. I was tempted to break it on his brainless head but it was a key piece of “evidence”.'
Fumia's persistence paid off. In 1995 CAR magazine called it the ‘Best Detail in Production.’
(arvestades seda, et sinna on viidud vasakpoolse tooliga auto, siis tuled on minimaalne asi, mida vahetada)