Top Car

INSIDER.Geely design bossPeter Horburytalksupthe Chinese company’s range and hisnew taxi for London(whiletalking downtheuseofVolvo’s parts bin)‘Copyi ngisoverinChina.Companieshaveproperdesigndepartmentsnow’The TOPCAR InquisitionTell usaboutyourfirst car...‘It was aRenault 4LboughtwhenI was astudentatthe RoyalCollege ofArt. The Lstoodfor “lousy”. I hada limit ofa few hundredpounds andfoundit intheEvening Standardnewspaper.Whichachievementmakes youmostproud?‘Havingthe ambitionfrom theage of sixorseven tobecomea car designer and``````actually getting there.I rememberat mygrammarschoolcareers night saying,“I wanttobea cardesigner”andmyteacher replying,“Have you thoughtabout insurance? Carsneedinsurance.” ButI wenttoart schoolandin 19 74 walkedintoChrysler’s Whitleystudio –now Jaguar’s- and started workonthe Horizon model. Ididthe bumper, grille andlamps.’What’s the bestTOPCAR’S CURVEBALLS6 questionsonly wewouldask...DESPITE CONFESSINGTHAThe’s old enough toqualify for a bus pass, 65-year-old Peter Horburyshows no signs of qu itting. After a distinguishedcareer at Ford and two stints as Volvo design boss –including du ring the influential ’90s when heredefined the ‘boxy’ brand, courtesy of a pronounced shoulderline and strong, smooth lines on the first-gener ation S80, Sand C70 – he ended up back in Sweden in 2009 just beforeChinese upstart Geely decided to bu y the brand. Moving swiftlyto design senior vice president for the Geely Grou p in 2011, he’sspen t the last four years putting fire under the brand’s ambitions.‘It’s a whole new challenge and so much fun,’ he enthuses,‘becausethere was no brand identity before, no designdepartment. My job is to design the next wave of cars but myeven bigger job is to bring up a whole new ge neration of Geelydesigners capable of taking that momentum into the future.’Now boasting a team of 320 people he ’s busy making suredesign is at the heart of Geely’s car-making process. ‘To get acarinto production takes an awful lot morethan doing a sket ch andmaybe a clay and giving them to anengineer. That’s what Geely did inthe past. All the inevitable changeswere done by an engineer who hadn’treally got the same eye or approach.Now we have to sh ow howdesignand engineering work to gether in away that doesn’t lose the designintent. That’s as much a part of theeducation of the company as it is theyoung designers.’So pres umably there’ll be no morecopycat designs from Geely – like theawful 2009 GE concept that sulliedthe Rolls-Royce Phantom? ‘It’s astra nge phenomenon,’ concedesHorbury. ‘Confucian teaching saidthat the master knew everything andthe apprentice had to learneverything the master knew before``````thing you’vedonein a car?‘Taking myFordGTonto the Falkenbergtrack inSwedenwitha professional drivertoshowmethe ropes.Finding out where thelimitsare,oractuallynot finding out wherethe limitsare,wasfantastic. Istill own it.’Tell ushow youscrewed up...[Laughs] Dear, dear,me...everycar designhas atleast onemistake,or one thingthat couldhavebeendone better. Onthe1994 Volvo 960 faceliftthe front bumperseemstobefalling off.``````Thatsidefeature linerubbing-stripstill reallygratesonme.Supercar orclassic?I buyClassic Carsmagazine, soI canchoosea differentclassic everymonth andnot actually buy one.DidyouknowaboutGeelyfounder Li ShuFu’sunusual poetry-writing hobby?Yes,heoncesentmea poemhe’dwrittenabout the moon. Itwas translated verywell intoEnglish.He’scompletely differentfromany other bossI’vepreviously had...