A place to share and discuss Cassette Futurism: media where the technology closely matches the computers and technology of the 70s and 80s.
Whether it's bright colors and geometric shapes, the tendency towards stark plainness, or the the lack of powerful computers and cell phones, Cassette Futurism includes: Cassettes, ROM chips, CRT displays, computers reminiscent of microcomputers like the Commodore 64, freestanding hi-fi systems, small LCD displays, and other analog technologies.
See this blog to know more.
https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/brand-journal/heritage/heritage-series-grandeur
We’re celebrating the 35th anniversary of our 1986 Hyundai Grandeur flagship sedan with an electrifying retro concept. With an electric powertrain and all-new light and sound features, the Heritage Series Grandeur will seduce you with its ‘80s nostalgia, cutting-edge technology, and luxurious interior.
I’m seeing some pre-Chrysler Mercedes in this, it really speaks to me. Some cars are bricks, and they are bricks in style. Modern Mercedes could never.
I’ve probably saved so much money in my adult life since my childhood “dream” car manufacturer is just making uninspired and overpriced blobs now. Hyundai at least show they have their ears to the ground, even if this is just a concept.
Take me back to an era when new things were cool. I’m sick and bored of novelty; I miss novelty.
Really wish their heritage cars were real. Most EVs today look boring to me, so I agree.
Ok, but physical buttons are a great heritage to inherit too imho.
Take my money that thing looks awesome
I would definitely shoot at RoboCop hanging out the window of this car.
Holy shit, let em cook!
Although I love the look of old cars getting a modern facelift, I still don't get the appeal behind all that screens or digital gauges... I never liked the look of them, they're touchscreen, thus hard to use while driving and way too 'smart'. I don't want or need all the nonsense modern cars have today.. I just want a car that I have control over dammit.
Yeah, I think it’s a bit unnecessary and leaning too much into the modern EV digital dashboard appeal.
Ok, I love it, clearly this thing is a futuristic love letter to the 1996 and older lincoln town cars, the best 'Murican car ever made (from before the U.S. auto industry stomped the face of U.S. autoworkers even harder, these cars were obviously made with a fuckton of pride and practicality in mind).
In the episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where they show the Bell Riots in Star Trek timeline 2024, the car that the rich tv executive who totally falls for Dax has is a jet black Lincoln Town Car... he doesn't drive it himself of course, this is 90s U.S. wealthy people, he had a DRIVER.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ4vQgN_vZE
Edit This is a cool rundown of the pre-1997 Lincoln Town Car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axmLMLwPJ6o
Also gives me strong Buick GNX vibes, the other best 'Murican car ever made.
https://youtu.be/kIPU4TLDyRw <- this is a good rundown of the Buick GNX
I know some of you might kind of hate american muscle and luxury car design and that is fair, but one thing to note here, both of these cars were relatively light. The gas mileage on a 1996 lincoln town car really isn't that bad compared to the much heavier lincoln town cars (think 2000s era U.S. cop cars and taxi cabs) that came later into the 2000s and into SUV hell. The Buick GNX is a high performance sports car, but it had a v6 tuned for maximum power, not a v8 because v8 cool big and loud.
Both of these represent increasingly rare displays of the kind of unique brash things U.S. culture could make that would be difficult to imagine anywhere else making quite the same way, that somehow managed to not be totally undermined by shockingly incompetent and ignorant rich men. Also it represents the opposite of that too, that in the realm of ideas, everything is always in conversation nobody truly owns anything and anyone can make anything if they have the vision!
Nice job Hyundai, honestly sick car.
Edit just got a Hyundai ad immediately after writing that, nope, back to Fuck ALL Car Companies, that was a nice little mental vacation I suppose even if it was short
Anyone who doesn’t love the Grand National needs a smack with a spanner.
I don't like them. Then again I like Trabants, Rover Metros, series land rovers and zaphorezyets.
I like them for the same reason I like those guys too - I’m a big fan of cars whose designer’s main weapon was the ruler. I’m also a big fan of notch-backs for some reason, which I blame on anglias
looks more like a Toyota Century to me
I mean, definitely, I wasn't trying to say this was exclusively a reference to those cars only that the reference is there.
it's just very funny to read a take like "obviously this is a tribute to 90s american cars" with massive amounts of detail, when the asian manufacturers have been building these luxury barges for domestic use since the 70s
very amerikapilled for a sopuli user
I have stated multiple times the influences on this car I am pointing out are not exclusive, so this is a waste of time to respond to, but I do find it hilarious that you think this car doesn't reference at least the lincoln town car, we are talking about an era of car design with influences going in all directions, you are making an absurd argument to suggest that I am saying this is exclusively a 'murican thing.
This concept car is CLEARLY heavily influenced by the pre 1997 lincoln town cars.. which were also influenced by lots of asian cars, I mean I don't even like U.S. cars, I have never bought one and likely never will lol so it is funny that you are interpreting me being excited about a concept car from Hyundai as trying to claim it exclusively as a U.S. thing.
Also, I am from the U.S., and these types of cars are everywhere vs. I have definitely never seen a Toyota Century, so like yeah... I don't mean to make this a U.S. centric conversation but rather point out connections to the culture/landscape I grew up in. The lincoln town car and cars like it were the grandpa car when I was growing up, I am sure you have grandpa cars wherever you live and they are probably a different type of car. Growing up as a USian I never thought of these cars as anything more than grandpa cars, but they are actually pretty cool and I was trying to shed some light on how these cars are more interesting than they seem especially if you don't know much about U.S. cars to which I think the images I pasted clearly suggest an aesthetic link with this concept car whether it is direct or indirect.
.....
maybe it's my view that's eurocentric! this form factor was never popular in europe, so we never saw them except as imports.
but like, an asian company building a car that's a throwback to their history as an automaker is quite obviously primarily influenced by their own cars, and cars produced in their area. hence, the Century. No shade on you, obviously, you write very well and structured your post amazingly. it's just such a common trope.
I understand, I am sorry I didn't mean to be defensive, to be clear, this isn't just like a U.S. thing, there are whole major influenes to this car that I don't know that well either because I know the U.S. import equivalents less well or have never heard of the cars that never made it to U.S. shores.
I understand what you are saying though, most of the time when someone is talking like I am talking they are acting like you thought I was acting lol, point taken there.
To your edit - does Google know your Lemmy account? I have kept mine out of Google's sight, never logging in on Chrome; not using Gmail in my accounts, or did you do a search that have them the hint?
I searched in google i think
Thank you for this comment. It was very insightful. I’ve also never seen the Buick GNX, it looks really cool. Not sure how I’ve never come across it.
That thing is fucking insanely fast too, it isn't a muscle car, well it is in terms of power to weight ratio and ability to put wayyyyy too much power and torque into the rear wheels to be rational it is, but it isn't an unwieldy tank like true american v8 muscle cars are.
McLaren started with the Grand National's turbocharged and intercooled V-6, which already produced 245 horsepower (or more, but 245 is Buick's modest claim), massaging it until 300 horses showed up on the dynamometer. The modifications are straightforward hot-rod stuff: ported and polished heads, a larger turbocharger with a ceramic turbine wheel, a dual exhaust system, a recalibrated PROM (programmable read-only memory) chip for the engine-control computer, and an insulated intercooler outlet tube, which keeps the temperature of the pressurized air from rising after it leaves the intercooler. Maximum boost has been increased to 16 psi, two more than the Grand National's allotment, but a circuit in the engine-control computer still shuts off the fuel flow at 124 mph. The engine has enough grunt to push the GNX much faster, but Buick engineers feel the chassis wouldn't tolerate much more speed without taking to the air like a Frisbee. The rest of the engine has been left untouched, a testament to Buick's confidence in the soundness of the basic design.
Oh look damn, it is automatic, I guess it isn't a real sports car right? Especially an automatic transmission from 1987? The thing is the way the turbocharger is tuned to SLAM torque into the wheels at low rpms a manual transmission clutch would be fucking toast wayyyy too quick. We are talking drag racing magnitudes of torque/acceleration potential, not normal race car amounts. The automatic transmission is a design choice to allow this thing to be a cruise missile especially at 90+mph. I can definitely see the concern with this thing just being so powerful with so much torque available even up to very high speeds compared to its weight that it just takes off like a frisbee lol.
0-60mph in ~5 seconds, ok fine, fast but nothing extraordinary especially nowadays, but the low 13 second quarter miles this thing can throw out in a near stock Buick GNX speaks to how fast this thing really is. The basic car is still just a buick regal, so yeah it doesn't handle incredibly, but also it is a very straightforward platform to modify to make it handle better. Modified GNXs can do muchhhh quicker quarter mile times.
Man, $250,000 for the one in the video. It’s a beautiful car though.
Definitely not worth that, that is museum price lol
I’m loving Hyundai design lately
If KITT was a K car
Well now I need to get one on principle.
You just summed it up! As I detail in my post though, this is a specific homage to the pre-1997 lincoln town car and more distantly the 1987 buick GNX (the rear ends look totally different, but still). There is no other conclusion you can make if you look at the styling, I mean obviously there are asian minimalist car design cues here too from cars of that era (particularly, and beautifully executed, in the rear face and lights of the car), not trying to downplay that, this is just such an obvious nod to a precise part of U.S. car culture and it is cool because whoever had the vision for this car has REALLY fucking good taste in cars.
That dash confused the shit out of me at first since there's no way they could've done that in 86. Guess I missed the whole reimagining/concept thing.
Boy, that's hideous (I know many of you like this).
The "cassette futurism" part is fine, it's the car itself is part of the bad design from the era, and I really like the boxy car esthetic. This one's just not good, because it's from the transition era - it's not of the all-metal period (or mostly-metal at least), instead it's that terrible plastic bleeding to the bumpers. The front looks like a (terrible) 1980's Chrysler K Car. Shudder.
A slightly older car (perhaps 1-2 years) would've been better in general, but especially with the cassette futurism vibe, since the interior would be a juxtaposition to the exterior design. Or even the reverse, which CF does a lot - great exterior design around conventional internals (the Walkman, especially Sport versions, are peak example of this juxtaposition).
That interior though, wow, that's some snazzy design work. The dash just works, it fits with the era so well. Impressive.
This is hitting people with early 90s nostalgia, if that's before you cared about cars this isn't going to strike you like it does for someone who got their licence to drive in the 90s
I really like it as someone who is currently trying to get their driver's licence at 19. I may be a bit biased though as eighties cars are my favourite look and my dream car to own is the Ford Escort RS Turbo.