In my case, racing is what inspires me in designing my cars.
Sometimes. those old-school rides from yesteryear become my muse.
…and, of course, those wild and wicked concepts.
Even the occasional automotive icon can serve as a vitrual “canvas”…
“All that’s needed is your imagination”
@Noporian Nah, it’s not cheesy. Car design should flow in the same way music does.
@SpeedWarrior1 Inspirational 
and for me, the C stands for Citroen. if citroen thinks “what if we make the break pedal a button,?” then i can put a V12 in a city car.
Interesting thread. I have a fairly deep interest in the concept of aesthetics, and reading about what inspires people is pretty cool.
Unfortunately I don’t really have an interesting story about my own designs. They tend to be the embodiment of genericism. I believe in elegance through simplicity. A vehicle that is easy on the eyes, for generations to come, is considered beautiful to me. I think of it as “home”. You want to come home to your safe place… your comfort… something you know and love. Something that doesn’t change with the times. I want to see the same in my car. I’m someone who thinks of cars as more than just metal, plastic, and rubber… my car is my friend.
I know of many a vehicle that I thought was cool at first, and over the years it started to irritate me; and that’s something I want to avoid in my designs, so they tend to be very plain and traditional.
I take a lot of inspiration from Nissan and most Japanese marques from the mid 80’s to late 90’s. Those are the cars that appeal to me the most. They’re elegant, easy on the eyes, and excellent vehicles. I go out of my way to not plagiarize designs… but sometimes I end up with something very similar… and really it’s inevitable. After all, 99% of all cars have two/four headlights with a grille between them. 
Avoiding plagiarization specifically in the style I go for tends to be more difficult than other styles because my fixation on elegancy through simplicity prevents overly-complex designs.
I’m willing to try non-traditional and mildly crazy mechanical designs though. Nothing that couldn’t reach production… but some things are certainly out of the ordinary. I’m a fan of small, low-inertia turbochargers, so I frequently make powerplants that sound underwhelming on paper, with fairly low horsepower numbers… but their true performance is very surprising when actually put into a car. Five second 100km/h times using just 170 to 200hp in a family sedan isn’t out of the oridinary for me.
As for my company’s direction… I try to make sporty cars that are fun to drive, with excellent road-holding ability. I strive to achieve that in every single class of vehicle made; while keeping them competitively priced, reliable, reasonably practical, and still daily drivable. That isn’t easy… but I feel Nissan managed most of the time. To me, their Skyline R32 is absolute automotive perfection; so much so that I can’t design my own vehicle in that specific class that isn’t inferior in every way no matter what I do.
My turbochargers do come with a serious drivability hit though, according to Automation. I suppose that is true when power more than doubles at 2,200rpm or so… but those cars are equiped with AWD most of the time, and my cars in general tend to have slightly wider tires than the industry standard. Usually my compacts (think Sentra/Civic) run 205/50/R15s instead of 185/60/R15s, and my mid-size sedans (Think Altima/Camry to Maxima/Avalon) employ tires ranging from 215 to 245mm in width, depending on powerplant and class. I feel wider tires are an excellent way to improve the overall performance and safety of a vehicle without a significant drawback. I’m always willing to pay extra for some sticky rubber, because I know a crash is a lot more expensive than a set of good tires. My “customers” need to be taught the same.
205 and 215-235 tires are industry standard for compacts and midsize cars.
That wasn’t the case before the 1990’s 
I just think of the closest real life vehicle and try to outdo it as much as possible. In terms of performance, not looks. I can’t quite wrap my head around the aesthetic aspect of it.
