The trend of blending vintage style with modern advancement in the internal working of a product has gained a good deal of popularity across a wide range industry in the past few years. Be it a record player that looks like it could be from the mid-20th century but has a USB input in the back, or a high performing kitchen appliance, sea foam and retro in every way, but enjoying the latest improvements in micro motor engineering on the inside.
Sometimes a retro design is simply a better design, meaning that when people buy vintage, they are not necessarily making a judgement based on culture or nostalgia, but are actually simply going with the superior product. In other words, design aesthetics hit a peak in the mid 1960s, and since then the desire to fix that which is not broken is what has given us a visual sea of mediocrity with the rare diamond cresting waves too few and far between.
The Dutch brothers Paul and Tino Huet understand this completely. It is from this stance on design and aesthetics that they launched Huet Brothers, a boutique vintage racing style automotive manufacturer. The HB Coupe Concept, pictured above, is a perfect example of their appealing brand. While the exterior design is an important and defining characteristic for the car, it was very much designed with road racing in mind:
“We want a sports coupe, for rain and sunny weather,” said a Huet’s representative, “With modern day comforts, with classic lines, which doesn’t rust, which can carry our bags, which can handle mountain roads as well as traffic jams, which can be serviced at any garage, which will put a smile on our faces every day and not to forget that drives to the Swiss Alps from Amsterdam on 48 litres. Mmhmmm, but we are not like everybody… because that car would surely exist already. So maybe some of us don’t like classic lines too much and maybe some of us don’t really care about tanking after 1200 km. Some of us want a race car for on the road – a road racer.”
As of right now there are no distribution lines set in place for Huet in North America, but Phoenix Valley auto enthusiasts can keep an eye tuned to Vroom for updates. A product like this will be welcome and in high demand among circles of luxury, classic, and vintage racing enthusiasts the world over, so it is only a matter of time before Huet finds their way to wherever the customers are, including the Phoenix Valley area.
