“The Chopster is a luxury-class life-style SUV that was designed specifically for automobile enthusiasts who appreciate a sporty and highly extroverted appearance in the SUV segment,” say Rinspeed chairman Frank M. Rinderknecht and EDAG board spokesman Matthias Topp about their joint project. Given that goal the designers of both companies came up with a vehicle whose ambitious exterior immediately commands respect.

To emphasize its sporty character the EDAG design team chopped the roof of the original vehicle by a whopping 70 mm and added muscular fender flares. “Our inspiration for the design of the Chopster was the image of an American football player whose outfit and athleticism stands for enormous strength and assertiveness,” explains Johannes Barckmann, director of the EDAG-design studio. The wide muscular flares above the wheel arches in combination with the lowered roofline of the Chopster are consciously designed to evoke the image of a football player ready to pounce. The massive wedge-shaped side skirts visually reemphasize the SUV's urge to storm forward. The newly designed front of the vehicle is similarly impressive: The beefy front bumper features large air inlets for the intercoolers, an unmistakable sign for the enormous demands for air made by the 600-hp turbocharged engine that was developed by BSO 2001 Software & CAD Engineering.

The parallel horizontal lines of the vehicle's rear further bolster the overall muscular appearance of the Chopster. Befitting its character the Chopster runs on enormous 23-inch wheels, which were custom-cast by ‘CW Fahrzeugtechnik Vertriebs GmbH.' Low-profile Continental SportContact UHP tires in size 315/25 provide the necessary grip.

The luxurious yet sporty look continues in the design of the interior. Each of the four occupants has his own separate sport seat - either by Cobra Seats or by Recaro. A futuristic center console spans the length of the interior from the shift gate to the rear seats. The bow-shaped console houses cup holders and switches as well as the on-board infotainment system with Blaupunkt monitors, DVD player and Sony PS2 game console.

The materials used in the interior are of the highest quality: The Chopster on the Rinspeed exhibit at the show is painted matte silver. The interior features a combination of black leather and dark grey Alcantara. Silver carbon inserts from steering wheel to door handles, all handcrafted by MP Design with loving attention to detail, add to the sporty character of the Chopster. Illuminated sill plates from ‘INT autotechnik' round out the interior.

EDAG Engineering + Design AG exhibits yet another equipment version of the Chopster on their show display: In fine contrast to the orange-metallic exterior the interior is dominated by natural-white leather. Various applications in body color round out the sporty yet elegant overall appearance.

“Customers can individualize the interior of their Chopster to suit their personal preferences,” explains Frank Rinderknecht. The 600-hp Chopster will be built in an exclusive small-series production run starting in April of 2005. It can be ordered from Rinspeed AG starting at about 325,000 euros. Small-series production is handled by EDAG.

The highly experienced prototype builders from EDAG Engineering + Design AG ensure that the act of chopping is done with perfect craftsmanship while retaining the high safety standards of the original vehicle. Installation of add-on parts as well as the implementation of customer-specific requests in the interior is done in the model-building shop at EDAG headquarters in Fulda.

The model-building specialists of EDAG are normally tasked with the creation of perfect design models for the international automobile industry. They guarantee that the production of the Chopster involves only the highest level of craftsmanship.

The Chopster represents an exclusive, extroverted and trendy crossover addition to the SUV segment.

600+HP powered by BSO

By contributing extensive and exclusive know how, engineering and prototyping, the BSO 2001 Group participated significantly in the realisation of the Rinspeed Chopster project.

Ralf Spangenberg, CEO of BSO 2001 said: “It was an intimidating task to us, to participate in the tuning project of Rinspeed Chopster. The challenge was, to take the, from Rinspeed already beautiful executed and innovative designed vehicle and combine this with some true “under the hood” performance”.

By redesigning and reengineering the complete exhaust system of this vehicle, a significant reduction of the back pressure in the system was archived. At the same time, generated by these changes, a very distinct and sporty sound level was also archived. By reengineering the exhaust system, some new prototype high performance sport-cats where installed. At the same time a special coating was used for the metallic catalyst, which, with this type of a setup, provides an even better emission result then the factory OE setup. These modifications are the bases for the success of all further engine engineering tasks.

The next significant change was the totally new developed water-cooled intercoolers. This setup reduces the air intake temperature for the engine significantly and lets the engine operate at cooler temperatures under load. At the same time, the turbo chargers where reengineered for a higher output and also the engine ECU programming was reprogrammed with a totally new base programming software. With these extensive changes to the engine, a power increase of app. 160hp was archived. Therefore the engine output was increased from a stock 450hp to app. 610hp in the modified version.

Because of this significant increase in engine horsepower, the torque of the engine increased significantly as well. The torque increase is up from a stock 620Nm of engine torque to an astonishing 800Nm of torque. Subsequently parts of the transmission had to be reengineered, in order to withstand the increased performance of the vehicle. This reengineering resulted into an updating and the reinforcing of some major parts of the transmission. All engineering work was executed exclusively by BSO 2001.

The last point was to install an upgraded brake system, which was also provided by BSO 2001. This upgraded brake system will guarantee a maximum of safety for the vehicle, even under extreme driving conditions. The totally new front brake system is equipped with a two piece floating disc. This type of setup guaranties a significant weight savings compare to the factory setup. It also guaranties a 100% alignment of the brake disc to the brake calliper. Even when applied under extreme driving conditions, this setup guaranties a 100% brake performance. Further, the front discs are cross drilled for better heat dissipation and cooling and are also significantly larger in size then the factory discs. The so called brake hat is manufactured out of specially forged aircraft aluminium and also hard anodized. The mounting of the brake disc to the brake hat is done with a special titanium bolt setup. This setup will provide a maximum amount of strength and a minimum amount of heat transfer from the brake disc. The actual brake calliper is a high performance 8-piston brake calliper, which was originally designed for the use on race cars. The brake lines are special stainless steel breaded brake lines, which are extremely heat resisted. The rear brake disc's are upgraded as well and are also cross drilled, in order to provide a better heat dissipation and to match the visual appearance of the front discs.

Rinspeed Chopster is fitted with ContiCrossContact UHP tyres

The Rinspeed Chopster is a superlative lifestyle sports car: 600 hp propels the all-wheel drive, low-profile design bolide to a maximum speed of 181 mph. From stationary, this all-rounder does 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds. To ensure the full power of the V8 engine gets right on to the tarmac and the driving characteristics of the tyre match the very sporty vehicle concept, Rinspeed fitted the Chopster with ContiCrossContact UHP tyres - beefy size 315/25 R 23 Y XL front and back, on five-spoke 11x23 alloy rims. That way the driving characteristics remain sporty and predictable, even when driving at the limit.

Continental has a special tyre in its range for exceptionally powerful all-wheel drive cars - the ContiCrossContact UHP. Approved for speeds of up to 187 mph, this high-performance tyre offers extremely short braking distances, high cornering stability and safe driving characteristics, even on wet roads. All this makes the ContiCrossContact UHP the ideal tyre for a sporty driving style on very powerful, fast, all-wheel drive cars. The design and size of the ContiCrossContact UHP tyre also strikingly emphasize the appearance of the Chopster.