A concept car is a car prototype made to showcase a new vehicle’s styling, technology, and overall design before production. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced.
It looks like this past few weeks have been pretty busy around Renault’s design center. First, that strange-looking 2013 Twizy F1 Concept was unveiled at the end of April and today, at the 71st Monaco Grand Prix, the French company unveiled the Twin’Run - a concept that pays tribute to legendary R5 Turbo and Clio V6.
The concept made its first run at the Monaco Grand Prix with Carlos Tavares, Chief Operating Officer, at the wheel. Alongside it was a Clio V6 with F1 star Charles Pic at the wheel and a Maxi 5 Turbo driven by Jean Ragnotti.
While there is no chance for the Twin’Run to enter production, Renault did confirm that it previews the styling of the company’s future city car.
The unveiling of the new Twin’Run concept will be followed by a series of other dynamic demonstrations at various auto-centric events, like July’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Updated 05/24/2013: This review has been updated with the official details, images and specs.
Click past the jump to read more about the Twin’Run Concept.
Every time we see Pininfarina make the news with a new concept it’s developing, we can’t help but get excited about what the Italian coachbuilder has in store for us.
Well, it looks like Pininfarina is preparing something; a concept, it appears, that will make its debut at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este later this month.
The concept, which has been dubbed as the one-off Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupe, was designed and collaborated with BMW and comes as a notable successor to the BMW Z4 Zagato Coupe that BMW and Zagato also introduced at last year’s event.
While the two companies said nothing about it, it has been rumored that the concept is in fact a preview version of a possible 8-Series luxury car. We’re jut hopping it will become reality!
Updated 05/24/2013: BMW has unveiled the official details, images and specs on the new Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupé Concept.
Click past the jump to read more about the BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupé Concept.
Just when we thought that we knew all there was to know about Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary celebration, they go ahead and unveil a completely unexpected one-off model. This new model, which is dubbed the Egoista, was shown to a select group of 350 faithful customers at a special dinner that the Italian supercar builder held.
The first thing that strikes us as odd, sans the wild styling, is the name, which translates to “Selfish;” that’s quite an unusual name for a car. The Egoista obviously borrowed a lot of its design language from the recently launched Veneno, with its F1-style nose and angular body.
The Egoista’s constructed mostly of carbon fiber and aluminum that is coated in a radar-absorbent material to help keep the cops from clocking you while flying down the highway – fortunately, this is only a concept, so Lambo can do as it pleases with the coating. Orange highlights the car in various areas, including the super-styled wheels and inside the intakes. The oddest of the orange accents is the orange-tinted front windshield.
Click past the jump to read more about the Egoista
UPDATE 5/13/2013: Lamborghini has released additional information and images of the Egoista. See more after the jump.
Every year, German automaker Volkswagen goes to the Wörthersee festival in Reifnitz, Austria to show us a concept that blows us away.
It’s no different this year because after much hype and buzz, VW is ready to unleash the Design Vision GTI Concept.
In a word: wow.
In two words: production, please?
We can go on and on about what we think of the concept, but that space is provided after the jump. Here, it’s all about trying not to trip over ourselves in throwing as many superlatives as our brains can come up with.
In any case, Volkswagen designed the concept as a way to show us what the future of its GTI line could look like. It didn’t say that a production version of this car is on the horizon, which is a bummer, but if this does give us a hint of what we can expect for future GTI models, then Volkswagen did a masterful job of getting our attention.
Updated 05/10/2013: After the new Design Vision GTI Concept made its world debut at the Wörthersee meeting the other days, today it unveiled a first promo video that makes our imagination go wild: how will it be if VW will really create a GTI that can transform?
As promised, click past the jump to read more about the Volkswagen Design Vision GTI Concept
Every year at the Wörthersee event, Audi makes sure that its presence is felt significantly.
This year, the German automaker is presenting the “Home of quattro” and it’s got a pretty impressive concept on tap to make its debut in the form of the TT Ultra Quattro Concept.
It’s based on the Audi TT, the German brand’s resident sports car. That’s as far as similarities go because the TT Ultra Quattro Concept is more like the TT’s hotter and sexier cousin, dressed more provocatively to accentuate its sexier curves.
Sure, it’s a concept, which is a real shame, and if Audi ever decided to bring the car to production, it might have to do so at the cost of what makes this car really unique.
At the end of the day, the TT Ultra Quattro is a fantastic concept that will probably give Audi headaches should it decide to green light production. But in its current state, it’s remarkably awesome in every sense of the word.
Updated 05/08/2013: Audi unveiled new images of the TT Ultra Quattro Concept and a new video featuring Le Mans-winning driver Andre Lotterer behind the wheel. Enjoy!
Click past the jump to read more about the Audi TT Ultra Quattro Concept
It looks like Volkswagen was pretty busy this year developing its lineup for the annual Wörthersee Tour in Austria. Alongside a special Golf GTI variant set to finally be uncovered tomorrow when the show begins, the company will also unveil a concept version of the Amarok pickup truck.
Called R-Style, the concept features a pretty aggressive aerodynamic kit, with carbon-fiber front and rear aprons, side skirts, bespoke bumpers and a rear diffuser with dual pipes. Volkswagen has also decided to make the pickup look wider thanks to 60 mm (2.36-inch) wider fenders that hide the new 22-inch wheels painted in a gunmetal shade. The interior received sports seats, dashboard and door panels made of carbon fiber, and a sports steering wheel.
Under the hood, the Amarok features a 3.0-liter turbocharged V-6 diesel engine that delivers a total of 268 horsepower and a peak torque of 442 pound-feet. The engine is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission and sends the power to the all four wheels via a permanent all-wheel-drive system.
Click past the jump to read more about the standard Volkswagen Amarok.
It looks like Volkswagen Group has prepared quite a lineup for this year’s Wörthersee show. Earlier today, we brought you the first details on the Seat Leon Cup Racer, now is time to talk about another concept, this time around it’s from Škoda.
Škoda’s concept is based on the most recent addition to its lineup: the Rapid. Called Rapid Sport, this new concept sets out to prove the tuning capabilities of the new sedan. The concept is painted in a combination of "Corrida Red" and ’Steel Gray" exterior colors and sits on 19-inch alloy wheels.
Because it’s a "sport" concept, it also receives an aerodynamic kit that adds spoilers and a sporty-looking air intake in the front skirt up, large fenders and massive rocker panels. On the backside, the Škoda gets a large bumper and two integrated tailpipes.
For the interior, Škoda added a sport-type steering wheel, Recaro seats and illuminated door sills.
Click past the jump to read more about the standard Škoda Rapid.
The Qoros 3 made its debut at the Shanghai Motor Show. The sedan is a Chinese car that looks to crack the western market.
The new Qoros automotive brand is looking to go International with their cars. Chinese cars do not have a great sales history in Europe or the United States, but the new brand is trying to change all of that.
The first car that will be available for sale is the Qoros 3 Sedan. The compact sedan was designed with marketing to China and Europe in mind. Unlike other cars to have come out of China that have a reputation of being knockoffs, the new car has styling all its own. Beyond what looks like good styling, the company is promising to build a quality car. If the quality can match the styling of the car then Qoros could do for the Chinese car market what Honda did for the Japanese market.
Beyond the compact sedan that is close to production, a 3 hybrid hatchback concept was also presented in Shanghai. A 3 Estate concept was also unveiled at the show, which showed the direction that the young company wants to take their cars.
Hit the jump to read more details about the Qoros 3.
In the past few years Wörthersee expo-show brought us some of the coolest concepts from both Audi and Volkswagen. This year’s show seems to be no exception, as Audi has already announced the TT Ultra Quattro Concept and Volkswagen has just announced that it will unveil a hot concept that will preview a new Golf GTI.
Talking about the new concept, Volkswagen boss Dr Ulrich Hackenberg said that it won’t be as powerful as the Golf GTI W12 Concept we saw at the same show back in 2007, but it will be more realistic.
While he declined to offer any other details on the new concept, it is rumored that it will preview an extreme version of the GTI built to celebrate the model’s 40th anniversary, maybe called Edition 40 GTI? That name holds some water because when the model celebrated its 35th anniversary, VW unveiled the Golf GTI Edition 35.
If the new model will follow the tradition of the previous model; it will be carry about 25 to 30 more horsepower and will feature a more aggressive body language.
Click past the jump to read more about the Golf GTI W12 Concept.
This year at the Shanghai Motor Show, Toyota came with two concept cars designed exclusively for the Japanese market: one is the Yundong Shuangqing II - a preview version of a vehicle set to be offered exclusively in China. The second one is the FT-HT Yuejia concept - a six-seat car aimed at younger customers.
The FT-HT Concept comes with three rows of two individual seats and was developed on a wheelbase measuring 2,900 mm (114.17 inches). The concept measures 4,770 mm (187.79 inches) in length, 1,920 mm (75.59 inches) in width and 1,840 mm (72.44) in height, making it the perfect car for a big family.
Toyota said the concept features a hybrid powertrain, and while it reveals nothing on this powertrain, we expect it to be the same one as we have seen in Toyota’s production cars: a 1.8-liter Atkinson cycle petrol engine that delivers 98 horsepower combined with an electric motor for a total output of 134 horsepower.
The new FT-HT Yuejia concept is expected to be put into production exclusively for the Chinese market.
Click past the jump to learn about other China-only concepts displayed in Shanghai.
