The way Ben Franklin feels so purposefully predictive of the bicentennial, the way the Ozark woodcarvers in 1975 belong more to a receding artisanal American past than to the Ozarks, the ads with their shrinking cars and the slightly blue tinge of the Ektachrome film stock: the issue becomes a period piece, even though not meant to be about its period.
The project is a contemporary take on compression art developed by César Baldaccini (aka "César"), a 20th Century French sculptor who got his kicks by shrinking cars and various industrial objects, turning them into large cubes of tortured steel.
That's because most analysts agree that if car makers want to appeal to a younger generation, who are driving approximately 23% less than they used to, they'll need to shrink cars into, well, iPhones.
But most Americans have little interest in shrinking their car-buying dreams; when they stoop to downsizing, what they're really saying is that small cars must grow to accommodate them.
If the effort succeeds, GM can save its shrinking midsize-car share, now 29% (see chart, left) in the U.S., from an unrelenting assault by Toyota's Camry and Honda's Accord.
If the effort succeeds, GM can save its shrinking midsize-car share, now 29% (see chart, left) in the U.S., from the unrelenting assault by Toyota's Camry and Honda's Accord.
"It's a virtual computer on wheels," said Franco Vairani, designer of the vehicle's foldable frame, which he predicts will shrink the car to as little as an eighth the space needed to park the average car.
He asked agencies to shrink their car fleets, and ordered a cut of 30percentt in the huge number of official parking passes issued to everyone from the press to priests.
"It will be an easier task for them than it was for us," Mr Tata admits.Competitors will, for example, notice how Tata shrank the car into what its chairman calls a "concise package", with the engine at the back and the wheels at the "extremities".
"It will be an easier task for them than it was for us," Mr Tata admits.Competitors will, for example, notice how Tata shrank the car into what its chairman calls a "concise package", with the powertrain at the back and the wheels at the "extremities".
