That's really interesting Matt.

I found each of the 5 concepts at Paris interesting, though I have to say I only really liked 3 of them. I wondered whether the arrival of Donato Coco might make future Lotuses too Ferrari-like but they have enough of the Lotus about them, in my opinion - in fact, the trapezoidal intakes at the front put me more in mind of Lamborghini than Ferrari, but that's just one detail and the overall effect wasn't Lambo.

I like the aggression of the Esprit and Elan, but I actually think the Elise is the most successful of all, balancing aggression with pretty. I can't decide whether it's because the small Lotus is the easiest brief, or despite it being the hardest because lots of the most successful Lotuses past were small, light cars fitting in with the Colin Chapman mantra. I see some distant echoes of the Lancia Beta Montecarlo in the roof- and window lines, and that's a compliment as that was a very pretty car (at least until it decomposed into a pile of rust). I like the flying buttress C-pillars as something that always looks classical and "right" on a mid-engined car, and it's an interesting interplay between the body-colour and black elements there. I imagine that part of the car is quite colour-sensitive though, do you have input into what colours will be available so that always "works"?

The Eterne and Elite I felt were the least successful of the 5, but they were definitely the most difficult briefs too with the least history to lean on. That might also mean less legacy to deal with but producing GTs in the old-fashioned sense of the word is not easy. I think the Panamera is a bit of a mess, trying to put Porsche sports car cues on a car that can't really take them and the Aston Rapide works because they totally copped out by stretching the design and adding a couple more doors in. I thought the Lamborghini Estoque had a good stab at it, though I'm not convinced even that is properly resolved at the rear.

I totally agree with you that the Ferrari FF gives them some changes in design language that they can build on in the future. I also agree that the 360 was perhaps too rooted in the past, but I like what they did with both 430 and 458 Italia - mixing some of the "technical" design of something like an Enzo with the traditional prettiness of the small mid-engined Ferraris (Mondial excluded, but then the 328 was doing pretty at that time). I liked the FF pretty much off the bat actually, once I'd gotten over the initial "What the..." reaction. And where they go with it next will be interesting - a change in design direction often isn't quite right first time, cf. the E63/64 BMW 6 series versus the coming F12/13. And the FF certainly seems to have stirred up a lot of discussion, which is a good thing!