R4Life by carlos arturo torres from colombia

the r4 it´s been a classic since i was a child, this car was my very first scketch tought by my father. not just to me, but to many of my friends this car had been into a starring role in our lives.

the flexibility and the economic feature of this model made it possible to be one of the most popular and loved cars ever as a matter of fact it´s been quite ecological due to the huge sentimental link that people developed through the years; how´s this possible? well, ross lovegrove (industrial designer) talks about linking products to people´s life. it is not about over-producing versions of the same product to build a big bussiness, it is about printing a little of life and of course usefulness and price to a product that people really needs; for example in some places here in colombia a r4 that commonly would be seen as a disposable car in europe, it´s been modified over and over again just to keep it "alive", people developed a close relationship with this particular car, and re-designing it it´s been a really hard work. so, lovegrove points to fact that if products are really well designed and connected to people´s affections, there won´t be need to throw them away have you thrown an original le corbusier´s chair perhaps?

what i tried to do was to get to an approachment of the main features of this car for an exterior phase, it had to make people wonder how nice it would be to be with this car (not possesing the car but being in company of the car) the head lamps were assumed explicity as eyes in order to make a quick connection with people, the rounded general shape talks about the kindness of this car and definitely it had to mix the new renault languaje in the rear part of the car. a clear r4 connection with people was the gesture of the gear lever, quite unique in cars, i tried to use this movement as part of the car´s ignition; the handgrip is turned to the right and then pulled out as a porpouse to not only connects the action with the previous r4 model, but as making the car´s ignition being an adults job. finally to make this an economic car i´m proposing an electric system that could be fed by wind´s presure; creating a small place to make the wind´s flow pass through a rotor equipped with propellers is placed in this "wind tunnel" that will force it to move a pair or even more dynamos to power the car´s batteries. that´s how i interpret the breathing car : the more you move, the more you breathe / the more you breathe, the more you charge / the more you charge the less you consume using your own energy to gather more energy. a circular system.