Writing a Terminator concept set in Miami, Chile and The South Pole and it’s required research into lots of cool eighties hardware to smash up. The trapezoid cars and trucks that look like Hajime Sorayama sexbots are indulgent, impractical, silly and a long way away from today’s frugal, beige-coloured world – but the designs also seem to be the closest we came to the brushed chrome 21st century we were promised when I was a kid. And two in particular are mind blowing.

Chevrolet XT-2 – designed by General Motors. ‘Experimental Truck 2′ never got past concept stage when it was discovered people were as happy with the same old cars with extras like CD players and leather ups. XT-2 was an expensive leap in the dark, and despite a similar design making progress as recently as 2008, General Motors filed for bankruptcy a year later and are now part owned by the US treasury. You can read more about it here.

Splinter – designed by industrial design graduate Joe Harmon with all wooden bodywork.  More here and here.

Both the above have already made it into the outline I’m working on, which I’ll upload soon as it’s done next week.