The streamlined art deco cars of the 1930s are among the most beautiful ever made, particularly the coach-built vehicles from the likes of Figoni and Falaschi. Turns out at least one motorcycle builder was inspired by the same aesthetic.

This heavily customized 1930 K.J. Henderson motorcycle was built by O. Ray Courtney in 1936 and restored by Frank Westfall. Grail Mortillaro of Knucklebuster spotted the bike at the Rhinebeck Grand National Super Meet last month and recently posted some pics.

Yes, it looks like it’d be tough to ride, and you sure aren’t going to take a turn at any kind of speed. But Mortillaro says he saw Westfall take the bike for a spin around the fairgrounds. Even with the enclosed wheels and long wheelbase, it’s at least as practical as the many customs you see cruising to Starbucks every weekend. It’s certainly more stylish.

More photos at Knucklebuster. Be sure to check ‘em out.

Photo: Grail Mortillaro/Knucklebuster via Bike EXIF

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Harley Earl was the first automotive designer to hire women. But it wasn’t necessarily equality Earl sought back in 1950. If that were the case, General Motors probably wouldn’t have called them the “Damsels of Design.”

No, the legendary designer hired women because he felt they possessed unique insight and excellent attention to detail, talents he found immensely useful for designing interiors, suggesting colors and selecting fabrics.

All these years later, automotive design remains dominated by men, and the top ranks are still held by the likes of Walter de’Silva and J. Mays. But women are playing an increasingly important role even as the industry struggles to attract more young designers like Kimberly Wu at Honda, Kerrin Liang of Hyundai, Michelle Christensen at Acura and Christine Park of Cadillac.

GM recently honored the women of automotive design at the Museum of the City of New York, where Park and others discussed the role of women in auto design and why we don’t see more of them in studios. It’s a question design schools and automakers are asking with mounting urgency.

“This issue about why there are so few women is an omnipresent matter,” said Imre Molnar, dean of the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. “The industry is changing slowly but significantly.”

It is an uphill fight for one simple reason, Molnar and others say. Far fewer women than men are into cars, so designing them holds less appeal. There is some validity to that. Of the 15 to 18 people who graduate from the center’s transportation-design program each year, only two or three are women. It’s the same at Art Center for Design in Pasadena, California, where one in 10 graduates is a woman.

Part of the problem is women too often believe they must be gearheads who live and breathe performance if they want to design cars.

The Acura ZDX was designed by Michelle Christensen. Photo: Honda

“Not many women know what’s involved,” said Park, whose work for GM includes the Chevrolet Orlando and the interior of the Cadillac XTS Platinum concept car. “It’s not all about mechanical things. The misconception that you have to know the gearhead stuff to design a car is the reason why many women tend not to go into car design.”

Those who do enter the field find work readily, as automakers tend to employ women at a higher rate than they graduate from the major design schools. Women make up about 30 percent of the global design staff for BMW, for instance, and 20 percent at GM. As vehicle design becomes more sophisticated, automakers are eager to bring more women into studios, because they often bring different influences and perspectives to the table. Park, for example, cites fashion designer Coco Chanel as a great influence.

“Her philosophy that luxury is not about vulgarity is something I take to heart when I design luxury vehicles,” Park said. “I think simplicity speaks to elegance.”

Simple economics is also driving the change, said Stewart Reed, transportation design chair at Art Center for Design. Women are an increasingly important market demographic, he said, and automakers must reflect, and cater to, their wants and needs.

“When you think about sensibilities for car design, most of the car-buying decisions have women serving a very important role,” he said. “This should be represented in the design studio.”

Until recently, women largely were relegated to the same jobs as GM’s damsels — selecting colors, choosing fabrics and designing interiors. Important tasks to be sure, but a tough way to make your name in a field where the pinnacle is designing exterior bodywork.

“It’s still a boys’ club,” Molnar said of the top tiers of auto design. “But I don’t want to overstate that, because it is changing.”

Indeed:

• Volvo took a page from Earl’s playbook when it commissioned a team of women to design the YCC (Your Concept Car), a concept created specifically for women.
• The interior of the BMW Z4 was designed by Nadya Arnaout and the exterior by Juliane Blasi (top photo).
• Park’s design for the Cadillac Converj concept was runner-up to the design ultimately seen at the Detroit auto show in 2009.
• Acura hired Michelle Christensen, its first female exterior designer, in 2005. She designed the sleek 2010 Acura ZDX crossover.

In the end, giving women high-profile jobs like that — and the leeway to do them well — is what will draw more of them into the business.

“Arguably the best way to do it is to create a culture internally where women can do very well and thrive and prosper,” Molnar said. “That way it would feed on itself, and more women would be attracted to it.”

Top photo: Juliane Blasi examines a clay model of the BMW Z4 she designed. Photo: BMW.

See Also:

• 12 Wonderful Wagons We Want
• Henrik Fisker's 'Timeless' Automotive Designs
• 15 Agonizing Automotive Atrocities
• 10 Automotive Atrocities Owned by You, Our Readers
• These Are Our Favorite Car Designers. Tell Us Yours

GM sang the praises of its ‘Damsels of Design’ in a promotional film. Video: General Motors

Harley Earl meets with his “Damsels of Design.” Photo: General Motors

General Motors designer Christine Park stands with the Chevrolet Orlando. Photo: General Motors

General Motors recently celebrated women designers during Designing Women: The Intersection of Art, Culture and Car Design at the Museum of the City of New York. During the presentation, designer Christine Park sketched out an early design for the Cadillac Converj concept car. Photo collage: Stuart Schwartzapfel/Wired.com

Henrik Fisker uses a single word to describe his design aesthetic: timeless.

Fisker is the founder and CEO of Fisker Automotive, a company hoping to shake up the auto industry and prove eco-friendly cars can be as lustworthy as the finest luxury sedans. But Fisker is, first and foremost, a car nut, one whose highest ambition is to design cars that will be as beautiful 50 years from now as they are today.

Wired Magazine

Driven: How Henrik Fisker Aims to Floor the Auto Industry

“The thing I really believe in is, in a word, timelessness,” Fisker says. “That’s something you have to put into car design.”

His designs draw as much inspiration from the human body as they do the classic cars of the past. They are long and muscular, like an athlete, and he has called them a “human-like form of sculpture.” Proportion is paramount. He believes cars look best with flowing lines, short overhangs and an assertive stance, which explains the look of his Karma plug-in hybrid (shown above).

“The Karma shows the perfect proportions of an automobile,” he says. “It’s long and low with short overhangs, large wheels and sweeping line. We wanted to design a car we knew no other automaker would do.”

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

This is the Magpul Ronin, and it’s what you get when a company that makes firearms accessories decides to make a motorcycle.

The motorcycle in question is, mostly, a Buell 1125R sportbike. The guys at Magpul are riders who loved the bike but thought the aesthetics — never a strongpoint for Buell — sucked. When Harley-Davidson pulled the plug on Buell, Magpul bought a bunch of 1125Rs and set to work.

Off came the bodywork, ditched in favor of a naked streetfighter look accentuated by a new airbox and shorter tail section. The radiators that Buell bolted to the sides below the frame spars also went in the junk pile. It was replaced by a smaller unit bolted to that wild girder fork. Yes, the radiator is bolted to the fork. Can you say “unsprung weight”? That said, the girder fork offers some advantages that make up for the added unsprung weight, and Wes Siler at Hell For Leather runs ‘em down in a really detailed post that has a lot more pics of the Ronin.

Photo: Magpul

Some cars are so beautifully designed and exquisitely engineered that they transcend mere transportation to become works of art. They are rolling sculptures, and to see them is to think, “That car belongs in a gallery.”

Curators at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta agree. The museum is hosting an exhibition to celebrate automotive design, and it has gathered a very impressive assortment of cars. The Allure of the Automobile, which opens Sunday and runs through June 20, features 18 vehicles created in what could be called the golden age of design, from the early 1930s through the early 1960s.

The vehicles range from a 1933 Pierce Silver Arrow to a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT. Each is presented in the context of the Art Moderne and Postwar Modernity movements, and they all have a timelessness that goes beyond mere craft to become art.

Take, for example, the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C2900B Touring Berlinetta shown above. Phil Hill, America’s first world champion driver, said of this car, “If that doesn’t get your heart racing, then you don’t have any blood in you.” Who are we to argue? The Touring Berlinetta exudes strength and refinement and finely shaped design that is hard to equal, let alone surpass.

Now look at the 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. An Italian body with a British heart. Sleek, yet muscular; refined, yet designed for the track. Though the design looks simple at first, the longer you look at it, the more you see. Like all good art.

The 1959 Chevrolet Corvette “Bill Mitchell” Stingray prototype is a show car that made it, more or less, into production when the second-generation Corvette rolled out in 1963. Mitchell replaced the legendary Harley Earl as GM’s vp for styling in 1958, and he traded Earl’s bulbous styling for sculpted designs. This car blends the classic lines of European sportscars with the futuristic cues popular among American automakers in the 1950s to create a car that still looks fresh.

Pick just about any Ferrari from the 1950s and ’60s and it’s a stunner. And the 250 SWB (for short wheelbase) Berlinetta is one of the prettiest. The car (this one is a 1961 model) is among the most important GT race cars ever and one of the most beautiful. Styling is often secondary to function in auto racing, but the 250 SWB is an example of form and function coming together in harmony.

This is the 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster. It was Mercedes’ flagship vehicle, and no expense was spared. It perfectly represents the art deco styling of its era, and with a supercharged engine (the “K” stands for “kompressor”), it was as powerful as it was sleek. Even a car as old as a 1937 Mercedes can look thoroughly fresh if it’s designed right, and everything about this car was done right.

This little brute is the 1953 Porsche 550 Le Mans/La Carrera Panamerica Coupe, and it has a very impressive racing history. It also has very impressive styling. Although many automakers design cars to look streamlined, the 550 coupe is streamlined. It was designed with an eye toward maximum aerodynamic efficiency. It’s another example of form and function coming together beautifully in a timeless design that can be seen today in the Cayman and Boxster.

UPDATE 8:30 a.m. Eastern, March 20: Many of you are asking why one car or another isn’t listed. The answer is because these are the only photos from the exhibit the High Museum of Art provided to us. Though we agree the Talbot-Lago T150C SS is stunning, it is not included in the exhibit. Don’t ask us why; perhaps the museum couldn’t find anyone willing to loan it one. Here’s a full list of the cars in the exhibit; if there’s something you think should have been included, list it in the comments.

• 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow
• 1934 Packard Twelve Runabout Speedster
• 1935 Duesenberg JN Roadster
• 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster
• 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe
• 1937 Delage D8-120S
• 1937 Hispano-Suiza H-6C “Xenia” Coupe
• 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C2900B Touring Berlinetta
• 1938/39 Porsche Type 64 Coupe (replica)
• 1948 Tucker Model 48 Torpedo
• 1953 Porsche 550 Le Mans/La Carrera Panamerica Coupe
• 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR (W 196-S)
• 1954 Dodge Firearrow III Concept Coupe
• 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham
• 1959 Chevrolet Corvette “Bill Mitchell” Stingray Prototype
• 1957 Jaguar XKSS Roadster, formerly owned by Steve McQueen
• 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato
• 1961 Ferrari 250 Short-Wheelbase Berlinetta, aka the “SEFAC Hot Rod”

Photos: High Museum of Art

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• These Are Our Favorite Car Designers. Tell Us Yours
• Auto Designers Cater To China, the New Giant
• Peek Inside Porsche’s Super Hybrids
• Controversial BMW Designer Chris Bangle Quits

To hear the specs, the Lampo2 electric vehicle is sexy as hell: prodigious power, tremendous torque and respectable range. But it all goes bad quickly when you actually see the car.

Seriously. Just look at this thing. Swiss EV dabblers Protoscar took the reasonably attractive, if somewhat quirky, Lampo EV concept we drove and made it look like a carp. It’s a shame, because there’s some impressive tech under that ugly skin.

It’s got a Brusa motor at each end and all wheel drive. The motors produce 300 kilowatts (402 horsepower) and 472 pound-feet of torque. Protoscar claims the car will do zero to 62 mph in 5 seconds and hit 124 mph. Those aren’t stellar numbers, but enough to keep things fun. Juice is stored in two (30 kilowatt-hours combined) water-cooled lithium-ion battery packs Brusa built with Kokam cells. Claimed range is 124 miles. All the hardware rides on the General Motors Kappa platform underpinning the dearly departed Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky.

Protoscar makes a big claim when it comes to recharge times. Although plugging it into a wall will take all night, Protoscar says DC fast-charging at a maximum of 80 kilowatts using a rig developed by Brusa and ABB will get you another 62 miles in 10 minutes.

It’s all academic because the Lampo2 is a demonstration model built to show what’s possible with EV technology. Protoscar is bringing it to the Geneva Motor Show next month but says it is a lone prototype.

Photos: Protoscar. More after the jump.

Mini is looking to gain a space on the coffee tables of artsy gearheads the world over this holiday season.

A new book depicts their iconic subcompacts repainted in ways that sure beat any of the exteriors we’ve dreamed up on the Mini website. Titled “Wash Me,” the compilation of photos turns each Mini into what the automaker calls a “transient work of art.”

Ten Swiss artists including Smash137, Fabian Bertschinger, Marisa Pichler and Gigi Burn, Tika and Yello frontman Dieter Meier put their own spin on Mini hardtops for the book. While all of the artists have extensive experience in fields ranging from graphic design to murals, none of them had ever painted a car before “Wash Me.”

The artistic tie-in isn’t new for Mini, who has sponsored the “Ludlow 38” exhibition space at the Goethe-Institut in New York and the MINI International Photo Award. Plus, remember that Mini’s parent company BMW has a long history of Art Cars starting with the iconic 3.0 CSL by Alexander Calder.

The book will be published in a limited edition of 2,000 volumes by Mini Switzerland and is priced at 34 Swiss Francs — about $33. We don’t know if it will be available stateside, but you can at least enjoy some of the photos in the book here at Autopia.

Photos: Mini