This is an excellent video produced by General Motors Europe, and packaged and posted online by theautochannel.com (boy, and if you ever wondered about the Michigan accent, take a listen to the woman in the AutoChannel spots at the beginning and end of the clip. “Daaaaht Caaahm“).

I take the following points from this little window into the design process:

- These guys are pros. Mr. Lo, your folks are on the right track.
- Using a spoiler to significantly change aerodynamics on a small car is something of a lost art, but I’m glad to see the Saab is there, making a great leap forward. In the case of the Saab 9-1x, the spoiler makes an even larger difference than with many other cars simply because it helps to avoid the pitfalls of the blunt rear shape (blunt-end causes drag due to flow separation). I’m happy to see this type of attention to detail.
- Concept cars used to be mostly about fanciful ideas that weren’t truly ready for technical execution. In this round, Saab has proven that many or most of the technical details are worked out while the car is built as a concept, and this video shows us a few more of those examples. I like that, because it means that the Saab 9-1x can be built more directly from the concept.

Question: Do all designers wear black suits and white shirts to work everyday? It’s becoming a trend, methinks.