Fastback-style sedan spikes..What’s the background?

Fastback-style sedan spikes..What’s the background?

These days, sedans have a different impression than in the past. Of course, all new cars are different from those of the past. If it’s the same, it won’t be the new type.

The new cars contain designers’ ideas to show new aesthetic values. And designers do a lot of sketches to create new forms that no other manufacturer has come up with.

For that, designers look for ideas in various places. Sometimes they get hints from past models, but these days, many designs seem to get motifs from the past.

In particular, as competition between car makers intensifies, they seem to bring ideas from the past more and more because they are trying to find clues to differentiation in history and tradition. Of course, that is by no means negative.

In fact, it may be true that there is no such thing as a completely new idea in the world. While studying art history, there are many things that surprise us that our ancestors already thought this while looking at buildings and relics from thousands of years ago. Today’s creation and technology are the result of stepping up the stairs of the past.

The Ioniq 5, which has a fast-back form, is based on Korea’s first unique model Pony, which was released in 1975. The Pony means that it is Korea’s first unique model, but it is also a design that shows the new direction of small passenger cars with a fast back-type body design.

The story of Pony is omitted here because it has been mentioned in detail in other articles. The design of the Fastback-style has the advantage of being dynamic and sleek.

Because of such characteristics, sedan cars with sporty concepts sometimes design trunks to look short with large rear windows laid down like fast bags and black finishes.

Looking at the design changes of the K5 in the past, such a trend can be clearly seen. The new vehicle also blacked out some of its trunk lid to look like rear glass.

In addition, even luxury passenger cars have become much more flexible and sporty than in the past.

The first-generation Equus (LZ), which appeared in 1999, shows an orthodox sedan silhouette with an exact distinguished hood, cabin, and deck.

However, the second-generation Equus (VI), which appeared 10 years later, shows a profile with a shorter deck using a much more flexible line.

And you can see that the third model (HI), which appeared in 2015, has changed its style trend more linearly, but its overall profile has changed to a more flexible image and to a fast-back image with rear glass and trunk connections.

This trend is not only seen in vehicles of Hyundai and Kia. Chevrolet Malibu is also a dynamic profile in 2011 when it started selling in Korea, but the side profile of the 9th generation model (V400) released in 2016 is more flexible, and the trunk lid and rear glass are designed as a Fastback-style made of a single curved surface.

The 7th generation Avante (CN7), which appeared last year, emphasized the image of a fast-back type by incorporating not only the rear glass and deck sides as one, but also a style line that emphasizes the straight line of the C-pillar.

Of course, there is also a stinger that is a Fastback-style and has a hatchback structure, that is, a body in which a tail gate is opened. It goes without saying that Stinger’s concept is sporty and dynamic.

And the 8th generation Sonata (DN8) is also a Fastback-style. Of course, the Sonata is not a hatchback structure. Nevertheless, it emphasizes the dynamic impression by connecting the rear glass and the trunk lead with one curve.

The G80 also showed the sedan silhouette of the authentic image in 2008, but DH in 2013 emphasized sportiness as a shortened deck, and the current third generation RG3, which appeared in 2020, shows a fast-back profile with curved rear glass and decks.

Why is this happening? And this change is not limited to one or two makers. It may be a flow.

Historically, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were times when the so-called “The new postwar style” of the body with low deck appeared in several manufacturers in the West.

Of course, the texture is different from the fast-back body shape we meet today. Of course, vehicle technology has also changed significantly.

Perhaps this change can be called a sense of the times. As previously seen, just as the body shape of luxury cars changes from rigid impression to more flexible form, it may secretly show that the value of society people seek is more flexible and free rather than fixed and rigid values.

Whether designers are aware of it or not, such a sympathetic value appears in many people’s sketches, and the design that expresses the previous rigid form with a freer sensibility is finally selected. After all, it’s not the idea of one or two people.

Of course, it may be enough to say that the body shape is just a body shape. But just as we look at cars with colorful tailpins in the 1950s and discover a different era than today, today’s fast-back sedan may also be one of the styles that speaks to the 2020s over time.