A concept car is a prototype that showcases a new concept, style or technology. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to radical new ideas. Concept cars never go into production directly, as often they are intended to ’show off’ what a company can do.
The first ever concept car was the Buick Y-Job in 1938, however since then, technology and innovation has changed dramatically. Here are 5 of some of the most innovative concept cars in recent times.
10. Magnet Car
The Magnet Car was designed by Mat รถ Proch·czka as a solution to the challenge of finding more fuel efficient methods of transport. This car uses magnets the same polarity as the road, which effectively ‘lifts’ the car off the road, making it lighter by 50%. Of course, this is a true ‘concept car’, as magnetised roads are a purely hypothetical idea, and yet to be realised.
9. Audi Locus
Turkish designer Ugur Sahin descirbed the main feature of the car as “the way its surface shapes are formed with continous flow”. He also comments that he was inspired by nature, in that there are no straight lines in nature. Its most outstanding features is the roof, which combines the windshield and the rear window into one continous glass surface. In Sahin’s words, he wanted to create a car that “creates a relaxing, energetic, vibrant and confident feeling”.
8. BRB Evolution
The BRB Evolution, designed by Daniel Bailey, has two innovative features to combat the changing issues in the future of urban transport. Firstly, it is powered by electricity and a hydrogen fuel cell, which would reduce pollution. Secondly, and arguably the most creative, it has the ability to fold to 50% of its original size, to help with the anticipated limited car-parking space in the future of big cities.
7. Audi RSQ Concept
This car, designed especially for the motion picture I, Robot and was intended as an amitious product placement rather than be actually built. It’s features include being a mid-engined sports car, its two doors are rear-hinged to the C-posts of the body and open according to the butterfly principle.
6. Audi O
This concept car was designed in 2008 by Ondrej Jirec, a design student from the Czech Republic. The car features glass windows running along the bottom edge which produces a unique profile view of the car. It is primarily intended to fuse a powerful audio system with a sporty hatchback design and as such, has DJ mixing decks, a double firewall surrounding the engine to block external noise, and the ability to download music from the internet on the go.
5. BMW ZX-6
The final projects of the Transportation Design students at Turin-based IED (istituto Europeo di Design), developed in partnership with BMW with the goal of creating a car for 2015 interpreting the language evolution and the brand’s philosophy.
4. Peugeot Flux
The Flux is a compact vehicle (3500 mm long, 1650 mm wide) created to be fun to drive and to please its occupants, thanks to the open cockpit, the dynamic character and the integrated X-Box console.
The name Flux was inspired by the continuous change and flow of our daily lives during work and play. The shape also represents this flow with transitions between hard and smooth lines, straight and curved all of which are typical Peugeot’s styling cues.
The hood and side body panels are made from plastics; seatsare in polyurethane and the mechanical parts are made of aluminium. The main components such as the chassis and head protection are metal.
3. M-112 “TINY” Car Concept
If big cars were the wave of the last generation this generation present and future will surely shift to smaller cars. Take a look at this tiny concept car, called the M-112. Small it is, but small has been proven to be safe if designed correctly and get amazing gas mileage and still be fast and sporty.
2. BMW Gina Concept
BMW is really thinking outside the proverbial box with their latest concept design exercise. If the previously featured M1 concept did not strike your fancy, maybe this GINA Light Visionary Model will do the trick. The GINA is a roadster concept wherein the use of sheet metal found on bodies of production vehicles has been replaced with a special, flexible, highly durable and extremely expansion-resistant fabric material that stretches across a metal structure.
Unlike traditional cars, various aspects of the bodies substructure are moveable and can be shifted by means of electro-hydraulic controls, changing the shape of the outer skin and overall design. One interesting example of this feature, becomes apparent in the headlight arrangement. When the headlights are not active they are hidden under the special fabric cover, as soon as the driver turns on the lights, the contour of the front ends changes revealing the headlights, looking a lot like a character out of the Pixar movie “Cars”.
The whole point of this exercise is to prove that rigid body panels (as they are today) are not a necessary design element and do not significantly improve the overall safety of the automobile. Most crumple zones are 100% dependent on good frame design and materials.
1. Ferrari Monza
Hyper-computerized vehicle designed by Iman Maghsoudi, this one is a perfect portrayal of his belief that driving cars in the future will be like operating a PC while zooming at 200 km/h.
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