Mark , agreed wrong choice of words. Nothing is really cutting edge these days, at least in reference to cars from major VM's. Agree the A5 coupe is a very good effort, the R8 Spider will look fantastic w/o the blade (makes a subtle by REAL difference to the shape and line). But as you say it's horses for courses...

: Yes, the R8 and MP4-12C are both modern but cutting edge? Hmmm. The
: R8 is a very succesful "Audification" of the donor
: car, but also pretty sober - with the exception of the
: "blade" and that isn't present on the Spyder. Probably
: my personal favourite Audi in the range as it doesn't suffer
: from the 'same-again but larger/smaller' styling of the saloons,
: though the A5 runs it close for me too; that's also a sober car,
: follows the saloon design but is just different enough
: and works well for me.

: For me, the McLaren is also fairly traditionally styled too - not
: necessarily a bad thing, I like the end result bar the awful
: plastic mouth, looks too similar to the one marring Laguna
: Coupes right now.

: For cutting edge, you can look at some of the detail aero
: treatments on the Ferrari 458; Ferrari design is not necessarily
: the most cohesive nowadays but there is some advanced thinking
: in the touches - the rear of the Italia has a lot going on, both
: visually (probably too much) but also technically.

: But then, car styling is like watches in that personal tastes vary
: tremendously (I'm not really a fan of the Monaco, but I hear
: some people like them a lot :) ) so at the end, it's probably a
: case of agreeing to disagree.