Just my 2 cents, so take this with a grain of salt...
Unfortunately, aside from Olmos's design (and I'm not sold on the front-end) all of the cars are very forgettable. I keep hearing that 'you have to see the designs in person' and 'it's different in full-scale' or 'we need clearer pictures', etc... I don't buy it. If I showed you a crappy picture of a 1/4 scale Ferrari 458 in gray primer, you'd still feel the emotion of that car. And that's just it, aside from Rodney's concept (love it or hate it), these cars don't really convey any emotion.
To take my own opinion out of the mix, I did a little experiment. I showed each of the entries in 1/4 scale along with their original renderings (as well as Vman's un-submitted concept) around the office. Then I asked which car, if any, they'd be willing to buy. Hands down, almost everyone picked Vman's un-submitted design, with Olmos's trailing in second. People just feel something when they look at them.
In my opinion, that's what f5 needs to capture. If you can take someone who knows nothing about the 818 and make them want to throw their money down just by looking at a picture of it, you've got it right. Until then, no matter how amazing the 818 is otherwise... as far as most people will be concerned, it'll just be another car.
Vman's design thread:
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...Design-Project