Flame surfacing

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chinny

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Could someone please explain what flame surfacing is and why the car magazines seem to go nuts about it?
Apparently Chris Bangle likes to put it on the BMWs he designed but I cant for the life of me figure out how the surface of a say a 525 is any different to a Monaro or any other heap of junk on the road.
 
Flame Surfacing is a design language introduced to the world in 2001 at Detroit's car show in the form of the BMW X Coupé. It is called brand imaging. BMW wants to create an identity, so that even non-enthusiasts can recognize a new model BMW even though they have not read or seen anything about it. This is called marketing. So many people confuse this with copying or impersonating. They are creating a common trend through their model lineup, for recognition. I really don't see why it is complicated, every company has it, Dodge's crosshairs, Pontiac's pointy nose, Nissan has slowly created trends in their range as well. BMW is doing it through a creative and evolutionary design process that they gave a name to, flame surfacing. I personally don't see flames, though. Car magazines go nuts over BMW's styling because it is something different and original. It isn't the generic styling used by almost every other brand. They are doing something liberal, they are actually progressing car design. You're perfectly right in calling the Monaro normal. It is. A GTP member once showed everybody why the 5 series design is rather unique, lifting out the shapes and flow of the car using coloured lines. Each line travels at a certain angle, every detail seems to enter at the right moment. Making curves meet is hard. BMW is pulling it off with every design they have. What is ugly about the 5 series? You tell me, I don't know. The 6? From nose to the back wheels, it's rolling sex. The 3? It uses less flaming because BMW knows that it controls that segment, so it chose a more conservative wrapping for that new model. The similarities are still slapping you in the face. The only thing I dislike about Flame Surfacing is the back decklid, which seems to protrude from the body for some odd, random reason. That came with the whole package from 1999's Z9 Concept. BMW is finally progressing something that had hit a drought. How many models have you seen that look outdated the day you first saw them? Take a potato, slap on light designs and a badge and you have yourself a Monaro, or Camry, or Honda. Creating a desirable product with each new model is difficult. Maybe BMW is doing it the wrong way, but at least they are doing something. I have never been excited about any single American car design ever.

Call this ugly. I dare you



(I just invited some eejit to say "its ugly". There, I did it again)
 
I was excited about the Viper, aswell as the Vectors......Not to mention the Saleen S7.....

There's no denying, THAT x coupe takes quite a few styling cues from cars that ARN'T BMW's..

It wouldn't be hard to mistake a picture of the top half of that car as a Corvette C6......

There's no denying that by looking at the headlights you could tell it's a bimmer, but that must be one of the few BMW cars that non-enthusiasts couldn't recognize if it didn't have bimmer "written" all over it. Know what I'm getting at?

Beautiful car though...
I mean....

"It's ugly" :D
 
Driftster
There's no denying, THAT x coupe takes quite a few styling cues from cars that ARN'T BMW's..

It wouldn't be hard to mistake a picture of the top half of that car as a Corvette C6......

There's no denying that by looking at the headlights you could tell it's a bimmer, but that must be one of the few BMW cars that non-enthusiasts couldn't recognize if it didn't have bimmer "written" all over it. Know what I'm getting at?

Beautiful car though...
I mean....

"It's ugly" :D
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It can't take styling cues from the C6 because the X Coupe was released YEARS before anyone even drew a C6. That model introduced the flame surfacing. Now (almost) every car in their lineup uses it. Now one passes by and my mother can tell me what kind of car it was. Non-enthusiasts recognize it, the whole department has done their first job. The second part is getting people to buy them. One little detail that BMW's have had on every single model I know is the little notch at the end of the sills on the C-Pillars.

What C6 are you looking at?!?! I don't see a single resemblance.

 
Well I didn't recognize it so there's 1. My buddy here didn't recognize it either and i'm almost 100% sure my mother wouldn't recognize it..

And those do look similar man.
 
Driftster
And those do look similar man.
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Whaaaat? They hold nothing whatsoever in common. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The things you can compare that part of a car are: A, B and C pillars, roofline and other small details. The A-pillars are at completely different angles and materials. The Corvette doesn't even have any B parts. The C-pillars are totally different, completely, completely-completely. The rear glass doesn't look anything like the same either. Tell me, please do, where you see the slightest similarity at all.
 
I wouldn't call it ugly, but it is a bit thick. Could use a weight loss program on the virtical thickness of the overall body. Pancake it a little bit.
 
Agreed. I don't really like the tail end, the car looks far too narow. I still like this car, one of the most influential designs of the past 10 years, I'd say.
 
That BMW X Coupe is just as badly proportioned as all small BMW's they all seem so 'lumpen' - BMW are really starting to lose their appeal.
 
It's nice to see no one's actually described what flame surfacing is.

I'm man enough to admit I have no idea myself. I think 'flame surfacing' is synonymous with 'Chris Bangle design', but I'm not sure what part of the design 'flame surfacing' refers to, if any. It's a stupid 'me too' term and I don't think it has a meaning.

EDIT: by the way, the X Coupe is great, the little convertible they did a couple years ago based on it is greater, and the interior of that convertible is greater still. Too bad few elements are making it to the cars.
 
eliseracer
Whaaaat? They hold nothing whatsoever in common. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The things you can compare that part of a car are: A, B and C pillars, roofline and other small details. The A-pillars are at completely different angles and materials. The Corvette doesn't even have any B parts. The C-pillars are totally different, completely, completely-completely. The rear glass doesn't look anything like the same either. Tell me, please do, where you see the slightest similarity at all.
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Dude it LOOKS the same, I didn't say it was the same design, i didn't say anything about "the rear glass" jesus dude calm down.....

IT LOOKS THE SAME
 
M5Power
It's nice to see no one's actually described what flame surfacing is.

I'm man enough to admit I have no idea myself. I think 'flame surfacing' is synonymous with 'Chris Bangle design', but I'm not sure what part of the design 'flame surfacing' refers to, if any. It's a stupid 'me too' term and I don't think it has a meaning.

EDIT: by the way, the X Coupe is great, the little convertible they did a couple years ago based on it is greater, and the interior of that convertible is greater still. Too bad few elements are making it to the cars.
Click to expand...

In short, flame surfacing is the name for the design theme shown on all BMW models. The flame portion refers to the very curvy and elegant lines and portions of the car's body. This is contrary to normal flat, boring body paneling and surfacing on most other cars.

I agree on the CS1 Concept. I noticed the reference and before I finished reading your post I had already said in my mind "and it's got a clever interior." One of the only designs I have ever seen that actually brings interior design elements into a car's.

 
to me flame surfacing is the term used to describe cars that have been deliberately uglified slightly for the sake of being different.

take a nice E39 bmw 7 series, add odd lines that break up the "flow" of the design, add a nasty humpback or something, give it a fancy name like flame surfacing, cocked bow, some bullkaka, and voila, youve managed to convice the unwashed masses that youre some kind of avant garde designer with a visino of the future.

the cognoscenti will always regard you as an average designer with a penchant for overly marketing lame ****.
 
^ agree totally 👍

To me BMW's styling has always been elegant and distinctive if a little safe. The upshot of this is that they age well compared to other manufactures (with perhaps the exception of Merc).
This new 'flame surfacing' (bangleoid) design direction will only make the cars styling age much more quickly - making owning an older BMW a less appealing prospect.
 

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