City of Amnesia

We're all familiar with Roger's car, the "Griffin". It's an amazing vehicle, considering how many gadgets and weapons are squeezed inside, but it's no less amazing from a design perspective. Here's a three-way view from Wikipedia.

(http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/428/800pxgriffon28bigo29vu4.jpg)

As someone who used to draw cars when I was a kid (along with warships and dinosaurs), I have found the "Griffin" to be a compelling design. But was it inspired by anything in real life? Well...sort of.

I ran across these photographs of Cadillac design mock-ups from 1963. These cars were never built, although some of the design details showed up later in some production models. Amazingly, Cadillac was considering installing a V12 in these models!

(http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/4149/z1wn4.jpg)

(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9008/z2ch6.jpg)

Wow!!!

TV

Eh, I don't see too much of a resemblance other than them both being ridiculously long. The Griffin is a 4 door sedan, that car is a 2 door fastback coupe. The front of the second car does look a little like the Griffin, but Roger's car has tiny little slit headlights and that turbine-looking thing on it. His car also has obscenely huge wings.

I always figured his car as being a late 50s Cadillac, taken to the absolute extreme.

Has anyone noticed how the top halves of all four of the Griffin's wheels are covered.

I've always found that a bit odd for some reason.

Concept cars in the 50s and 60s had that because it looked cool. But then you can't do intricate maneuvers like...turning. So then they only covered the rear wheels.

The Griffon's wheels look to be pretty far inside the covers, though, from looking at those pictures.

Also I'm not surprised those concepts had 12-cylinders. Top-of-the-line MB's and Jaguars have had them for years. Plus, having a ridiculously long hood without a V-12 in it is like putting a four cylinder into a Viper. Sacreligous. Roger's car is probably powered by one.

I thought the Griffon having a V12 was common knowledge (for the community).

Of course, I meant "inspired by" not "copied from". As a visual person, I see a strong resemblance, which is why my eye caught these on the interweb and instantly thought of the Big O. But we all see something different, hence those ink blotches used by pretend psychologists in movies...

That's exactly what the designs posted are, in essence. The one which resembles Roger's car the most has the front end from a circa 1960 Caddy.

TV

Well, well, well... I come back from my first exam to find everyone talking about cars... *wipes drool* OK, now here is a topic I can really sink my teeth into.  ;D


I used to draw cars, planes, spacecraft, and one other thing: wars.  >:( Yeah Vegeta, war... :)


Not really, here's a 1989 Cadillac Solitaire (another V-12 concept):

(http://www.desoto58.com/dreamcar/prototypes/solitaire1.jpg)
(http://www.desoto58.com/dreamcar/prototypes/solitaire2.jpg)

V-12's were used for smoothness, not just power. Smoothness is sophisticated, which is important if your Paradigm City's top negotiator.  8) The more cylinders, at the same displacement, the smoother the ride. Of course, if the cylinder sizes of the V-12 stay the same as the V-8's, you could end up with one powerhouse of a V-12. More fuel/air explosions = more GO!  :D



Big Finale is on the right track. There is lots of maneuvering space for the wheels, but also some of these cars employed moving or opening fender skirts when it was necessary to make a tight turn. In the case of the Griffon, I would say the fender skirts moved rather than opened. Otherwise, how could he make that sharp high-speed turn out of his garage, like in Act 6? In fact, if you can slow-motion through it, the fenders almost appear to turn with the wheels.


No, I think your on the right track, Tony. Your concept car has straight-back fins, a long front, and a short, high rear. If it had dual exhaust (it might with a V-12), that would really be an interesting similarity...


Well, I think they borrowed a little from Lincoln as well (hence my joke in another thread about a real-life Roger driving a Lincoln). For example, note the fins, roofline and rear of this 1957 Lincoln:
(http://www.familycar.com/Classics/images/57_Lincoln.JPG)
Of course this 1962 Caddy Series 62 convertible also had similar fins:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/1962_Cadillac_Series_62_Convertible.jpg/250px-1962_Cadillac_Series_62_Convertible.jpg)
However, I agree, they took these characteristics, and the batmobile front turbine, and ran with them. Frankly, I'm impressed with their concept for the Griffon. If theres ever a live action movie, then, like the movie Batmobile, the movie Griffon will need to be custom.

Well, back to the sublevels of Paradigm to study... Have a good one...and drive safely...
.The Final Negotiator.

honestly I can see no resemblance between the Griffon and the concept car in the first post. They are definately not related.

The lincoln however is different... that is more like the Griffon.

I too did some research on the Griffin as well and came close through a die-cast 1:18 scale model of a 1957 Cadillac Series 62 would be the closest to the Griffin not only that but I did take a scan of the Griffin instrument panel cluster to be identical to a Cadillac Series 62 IPC.  Engine wise could a V8 or V12 has people mention here.

Great info guys, esp. on the old Lincoln. That's the closest we've seen so far to the Griffin.

Just for fun, here are two Bentley Continentals from the early 1950s.

(http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7697/1953bentleycontinentaltke0.jpg)
(http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/1776/1950rtype390ey6.jpg)

Not the same thing, but I think it's worth noting that the Griffin, although resembling physically a classic American luxury car, seems to be more similar in spirit to traditional European GT cars of the 1960s. Before be co-opted for lesser vehicles, GT meant "Grand Touring" and described any large two-door sporting car with a hardtop, 2+2 seating, and high-speed performance. They were intended for wealthy owners to cover large distances in total comfort (and damn the fuel economy).

The Bentley was one such car, although more correct examples would be some of the huge coupes produced by the Italian companies in the 1960s.

TV

Here is a the Gryphon, with a 'stretched' version of that 1957 Lincoln for comparison.

(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1558/57lincolnmod2cq6.jpg)

This is completely gorgeous. Thank you for bringing it to my eyes.

I also found your automotive know-how really interesting. This is a good thread.

This resembles the Griffon a lot. As for the first car in the thread, though there were a lot of un-Griffony things about it, it had some very important similarities. I can see how Tony made the connection.

I love the cars in Big O: the way they taper out towards the bottom, their heavy construction. They're like mountains on wheels.