RAISING THE BAR

From reinventing the Fiat 500, Mini and McLaren, to rethinking personal transport itself, that’s how Frank Stephenson gets it done

- SIMRAN RASTOGI

Picture the Jaguar E-Type. One of the most beautiful cars on the planet, if not the most in its Fixed Head Coupe form. Though it was styled, not by a car designer, but an engineer; an aerodynamicist, it’s universally lauded as the prettiest thing on four wheels. And if you follow Frank Stephenson’s YouTube channel, chances are you’ve seen an incredibly detailed 20-minute plus a video where he talks about just what makes it so organically great. And what he’d do to make it better.

Stephenson then proceeds to sketch his take on the E-Type, fixing one little bumper line here, and an A-pillar there. Sacrilege? Far from it. Stephenson is far too matter-of-fact for it. It’s sort of like the ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’ school of thought. If you let satisfaction take over, chances are you’re also inviting complacency. Something that Stephenson is quite vocal about, especially when talking about the design direction down at BMW nowadays. He certainly has the credibility to mention it, with a list of hits spanning the modern Fiat 500, BMW Mini, X5, Ferrari F430, and basically setting the design direction for McLaren’s road cars starting with the MP4-12C.