AW: Looking at the Forty-Nine, you can imagine what it sounds like without even turning a key, and you immediately start thinking James Dean, or Robert Mitchum in Thunder Road. Are these visual callbacks? How do you pinpoint these visual callbacks?
Mays: We talk about these kinds of things a lot. It's often one person that has the idea, and then a team will sit down and try to verbalize what it is we're trying to accomplish and what buttons we're trying to push with the customer - which heartstrings we're trying to pull. Then we try and give visual definition to that idea. I'm firmly of the belief that if what you verbalize can't be visualized, then you're probably heading down the wrong path.

AW: Your approach seems much different from the traditional idea that people have of automobile design of clay models and wind tunnels. You're starting with a feeling you want the product to evoke.
Mays: The wind tunnel and clay model are still a vital part of it, but they're just a little farther down the development path. What I'm talking about is laying the foundation for the house by having these in-depth discussions about what the car is going to say, what the car's point of view is, and what the meaning of the vehicle is going to be.

AW: Do you see a timeline for the retro trend?
Mays: Because I don't see it as black-and-white retro or heritage, I don't ever see it going away. In fact I don't think it's ever gone away. It's only, oddly enough, just appeared in the auto industry because we're such a young industry, but it's always been around in fashion. Look at suits today. They look exactly like they did in the 1940s, except with a modern twist to the tailoring or the materials or the execution or the quality. It's the same thing in architecture. I constantly say that our job as a design community is not to simply just create new, but it is ultimately to decide what we are going to keep that will help define us as a brand. These are some of the things we've decided to keep. My idea of design isn't to create quick-hit fashion statements that are out of style inside of two years. My idea is to create timeless designs that people look back on and recognize as just that.