Only those as ancient as I am will remember that indicators were once little arrows that swung up from between the doors to show which way you were going to turn. They might have been a logical development of the old hand signals but were not exactly highly visible from either end of the car, even when supplied with lights.

It was inevitable, therefore that designers soon came up with a better solution to the problem - the flashing lights at front and rear that joined the main lights in a cluster. According to research published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, however, the idea needs refinement, even though we have used it for fifty years. The question is: do the indicators go inside the main lights or outside?

Their research has shown that indicators placed between the main lights are less easily identified and reacted upon by other road users. Much clearer is the system whereby the indicators are close to the corners of the car and outside the headlights. It seems a fairly obvious conclusion after a few seconds’ thought but many designers may not have considered the problem, judging by the numbers of cars with indicators in the “wrong” place these days.

So the Lotus Elise up there would be a no-no to the psychologists, whereas the Audi immediately below would receive the seal of approval. A designer’s lot is not an easy one…

Years ago I read somewhere that a particular car had been a dismal failure in Japan because it did not smile. Apparently, the Japanese car-buying public were taking their cue from the grille - if it curved upwards, it must be a happy car, if down, there was obviously something wrong to make it so sad.

It strikes me that modern car designers must have read the same article. Take a look at most of the models on sale these days and they have one thing in common - the cheesy grin. Don’t believe me? Take a look at these then:

The thing is, how many of these cars will be on sale in Japan? Okay, I presume the Japanese marques are, but the American? The big fuss about protectionist ploys on imports to Japan isn’t a complete fantasy, after all. So how did the powers that be decide that we all judge a car by whether it’s smiling or not?

Seems like a designer’s excuse to push through some very ugly grille designs, if you ask me…

Many years ago I saw a TV program that included automotive design exercises by young Japanese employees of car manufacturers. There were some fascinating ideas on display but the one that caught my eye was the single-wheel vehicle. Not a motorized unicycle, you understand, no, a much cleverer idea that seated the driver inside the wheel.

Whether it should be termed a car or a motorbike is open to debate but it seemed a suitably dreamlike subject for this blog. I searched the net for anything on the design and came up with a car in India that was at drawing board stage only, a few pictures of unicycles, but nothing resembling what I remembered or even using the same idea.

Then I thought that it might be described as a motorbike and tried that. Bingo! Not the design I had seen but the identical idea actually put into practice; in fact, a brief movie of some guy demonstrating the contraption. The machine is more obviously a motorbike than the Japanese version but it is just as pretty a concept and, wonder of wonders, it works!

You can see the thing in action by clicking on this link. It looks highly dangerous when moving but what really worries me is what happens when it stops. If I remember correctly, the Japanese design had some sort of arrangement to prevent it tipping over at rest but I can see nothing similar on this one. Perhaps the idea is to wait until nearly at a full stop, then leap off and run for your life!

Obviously, this idea is not entirely practical - the wheel gets in the way of your forward vision for a start - but, being the sucker for clever ideas that I am, I just had to show it to you.

Time to look at my favorite dream car - the Ferrari 250 GTO. I may do several posts on this one as it is, to my eyes, the most beautiful car ever made. And I am not alone in this assessment - for decades this car has been the most desirable of all classic cars, as reflected in its current going price of around $6 million. In 1991, one was sold for $15 million.

A development of the earlier 250 GT SWB, the 250 GTO was designed from the outset for racing and used a 3.0 liter V12 engine. Only 39 were made, considerably short of the required homologation requirement of 100, but it was allowed to race anyway. It won the World GT Championship in 1962, 1963 and 1964, which certainly argues for its effectiveness as a racer.

But it was its looks that made it so desirable. Perfect in proportion, partly thanks to its being one of the last competitive front-engined GT racers, nothing about it is overdone or out of place. The design was largely the work of Bizzarini and Scaglietti but others worked on it too after Bizzarini fell out with Enzo Ferrari and was fired. In a way, it is fitting that no one designer can lay claim to it, it being such a perfect expression of the supremacy of Italian design at the time.

But enough of my prattle - just feast your eyes on the most gorgeous of all dream cars and we can talk about details in some other post.