The ‘tall boy’ design
The shape of cars to come in the next century
By H.Kishie Singh

IT’S the new look for the next century. It is called the big small car or the small big car. Its unusual shape spells comfort, safety. It is aero -dynamic, with a new face and a huge interior. This is the tall boy design.

Where previously a car was judged by its head room, cars of this design have turban room. In a "tall boy" there is an easy 15-20 cms of room above the turban. The seats are higher. Which means getting in and out is much easier. The sitting position is upright and gives you a commanding view of the road ahead. Rear seats have ample knee and leg room. The doors open wider. The doors feature twin side impact beams.

This is some thing you never see but it is a tremendous in-built safety feature. If you see a rally car from inside, you’ll notice the roll cage. It’s a series of very strong pipes making a rib cage to add strength to the car. In case the car rolls over — and rally cars do — the driver and co-driver are protected.

The Side Impact Protection System (SIPS) does just that. It protects the occupants from a side impact, which happens more often to the driver. The tall boy design has two side impact protection beams in the doors as opposed to one in other designs.

The evolution of the tall boy design can be traced back to the late 50’s and early 60’s, when there was a car population explosion. The buyers were youngsters of the new generation after the Depression and World War II. The economy was on an upswing — there were big cars, big engines, guzzling gas. No one had heard of fuel efficiency, pollution, or preservation.

Now times have changed. Everyone knows about fuel-efficient engines, pollution and preserving fossil fuels. It’s the time for small cars and small engines.

"Aha!", said the car manufacturer, "Just because the car is small on the outside, it does not have to be small on the inside". So the tall boy design emerged.

Even the Mercedes-Benz of Germany, known for its large and luxurious sedans, has introduced a small car known as the ‘A’ class Mercedes. It follows the tall boy design.

This is the shape of cars to come for the next century. In India, we have two manufacturers making the tall boy design.

Their engines range from 800 cc to a 1000 cc and perform efficiently, smoothly and are maintenance-free. The service periods have been extended up to 10,000 km. Complete with electronic sensors, computer controlled and easy to operate, these cars are really for the space age.

All this can be traced back to the car-boom. The same drivers who chose the large cars, the cramped sports cars are all over 60 years old. Rheumatic knees don’t bend so easily. The back needs more support.

One major US car manufacturer has moved the ignition key back on to the dash board. It was found that an arthritic hand found it difficult to operate the key when the wrist was already bent on the steering column. Today dials are larger and easier to read for along with arthritis and rheumatism, weak eyesight is also common.

The manufacturers are accommodating the needs of the car owner. After all with A/C, radio, stereo, cell phone, it’s a second home on wheels.

Another safety feature under close scrutiny is seat- belts. The new design will have clasps in front so that big bellied people will not have to twist and squirm to fasten the side mounted clip.

And do drive with your seat- belts on.

Happy motoring!

This feature was published on April 3, 1999