u/rhapsodyinrivets

The Porsche 928 has always fascinated me, not because it failed to replace the 911, but because it almost succeeded.

I wrote a long-form piece tracing its entire journey: from Ernst Fuhrmann's plan to retire the 911, through the rise of Porsche's transaxle era, to Thierry Nardone's stunning modern reinterpretation.

I'd love to hear what fellow Porsche enthusiasts think, especially if you own or have driven a 928.

American crash regulations forced designers to add huge protruding bumpers to cars throughout the 1970s. Most manufacturers simply accepted them.

Porsche did something different with the 928. They developed body-colored polyurethane bumpers and even had to invent a flexible paint process so the bumper and body would appear as one continuous surface.

Looking back, I think it's one of the cleanest examples of industrial design solving a regulatory problem without making the product look compromised.

I'm curious, what are some other examples where good industrial design managed to hide engineering or legal constraints instead of celebrating them?

Hey everyone,

As someone obsessed with automotive design and mechanical architecture, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Mercedes G-Class went from a utilitarian monolith to a bloated luxury status symbol.

I put together a deep-dive essay analyzing the transition from the honest, pure geometry of the pre-facelift W463 SWB to the modern corporate behemoths we see on city streets today. Instead of usual spec-sheet talk, I wanted to break down why the original boxy proportions worked so well visually, how luxury marketing slowly killed that design honesty, and why pre-facelift cockpit feels so much better than today’s massive touchscreens.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether you think the modern G-Class has completely lost its architectural honesty, or if it's a natural evolution of corporate survival.