Design Study

These days, tuners will slap a wide body kit on pretty much everything that has four wheels, and while some cars are suited for such a treatment, other are not.

The Lexus LC500 falls in the first category, but fitting it with wider wheel arches and beefier bumpers might not be for everyone. I mean, should you ask for our two cents, we’d tell you that the LC500 is design perfection in stock guise. However, we’re glad that there are voices who beg to differ.

Remember the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R concept from 2015? Silly us, of course you do. But we bet you didn’t think there’d be the slightest possibility of seeing it in road-legal guise, as it is, right?

Well, Supercar Blondie got to drive, rev, and explore the concept in and out right inside BMW’s home, but she also had a chat with the carmaker’s Head of Design Domagoj Dukec, who let it slip that for the right kind of customer - we are guessing the filthy rich type - BMW could actually build the concept and make it road-ready.

Ford took the Mustang name and slapped it on a crossover, albeit of the electric ilk, together with the Mach-E badge. So, the obvious question was whether Chevrolet will do the same with one of its nameplates, and the Corvette, not the Camaro, was forwarded as a potential name for a high-riding Chevy.

Of course, Chevy might or might not build a Corvette-based SUV, but if it did, what would it look like? One answer comes from TheSketchMonkey, and to put it frankly, we kind of like what we’re seeing. Should we feel bad about it?

If you ever looked at the Ferrari Monza SP1 and thought to yourself that Maserati, the once-great Italian supercar maker that’s nowadays stuck with sub-standard SUVs and luxury sedans, should make something similar, your prayers have been heard. Sadly, not by Maserati but by freelance designer Luca Serafini who came up with this. If there’s still good left in the world, the MilleMiglia Concept will become a reality.

Imagine taking the best design cues from legendary Maserati models such as the 250F and 6CM, mix in a little bit of McLaren Elva and a sprinkle of Infiniti’s Prototype 10 and you end up with the bold, curvaceous, and utterly beautiful Maserati MilleMiglia Concept. As the name suggests, it would be perfect for a dash down Italy’s tight and twisting B roads, if only it were real...

The Dodge Challenger came on the heels of the retro-styled Ford Mustang and it made its mark as what was considered to be one of the more accurate reinterpretations of the classic muscle cars, beating out both the Mustang and the Camaro in that regard. The Challenger has, for the most part, carried on for the last 11 years with minor aesthetic changes, but dodge has made some tweaks to the chassis, steering, and general underpinnings to try to keep it relevant with the times.

No changes were more important, however, than the introduction of the most brutal muscle cars of the era. I’m talking about models like the Challenger SRT Hellcat, Challenger SRT Demon, and Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. These cars all boasted more than 700 horsepower (the Demon pushed 808, to be precise) and could run 10-seconds in the quarter mile or better. However, while they were all extreme in their own right, none of them were given a true track-day appearance package the likes of which you only get to see in video games like Forza Horizon and Need for Speed.

That’s where independent designer Abimelec Deisign comes in with it’s redering of a Challenger Hellcat in full track-day attire. It’s not even that outlandishly aggressive and it could be within the realm of possibility if the brass at Dodge would be willing to build a true track car out of the Hellcat. Of course, that will never happen, but at least we get to enjoy renderings like these. Let’s take a closer look.

The 2019 Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato is an experimental concept car that the Italian firm launched in June 2019. As the name suggests, the Sterrato is based on the 2019 Huracan supercar, but unlike standard sibling it includes off-road-specific features and technology from the Urus SUV. Described as a "super sportscar for challenging environments," the Huracan Sterrato also pays tribute to similar experimental vehicles from Lamborghini’s storied past.

The 2019 Huracan Sterrato may be an usual vehicle for a company like Lamborghini, but it’s not the first of its kind. Back in the 1970s, test driver Bob Wallace modified several production Lamborghini’s to create unique performance cars. Two of them, the Jarama Rally (1973) and Urraco Rally (1974), featured off-road-specific suspensions and upgrades designed for rally racing. Almost 50 years later and Lamborghini is revisiting its off-road supercar legacy with the 2019 Huracan Sterrato.

Here’s an original idea that nobody thought about before: slapping the world’s hypercars with jet engines through pixel manipulation, just for the fun of it.

This might come as a surprise, but it’s not often that we get to see hypercars (or regular cars, for that matter) fitted with the kind of hardware you’d expect to see on Star Wars-inspired battleship. I mean, sure, Porsche did have a go at designing a starship for the latest Star Wars installment ‘The Rise of the Skywalker,’ but that’s a totally different story than simply attaching two jet engines on the back of one of the most revered hypercars out there. Instagram user @plastiliner had this crazy idea, and we’re applauding it.

Lexus is not fooling around when it comes to electrification and is using Tokyo as a sampling experiment for the stunning LF-30 Electrified prototype. Did we mention stunning? The LF-30 looks otherworldly, has gullwing doors, and uses four in-wheel electric motors, a steer-by-wire-system, and a slew of autonomous driving technologies plus Lexus Advanced Posture Control. Stick around to find out everything you need to know about the Lexus LF-30 Electrified concept shown at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show.

Now a rather small automaker with no so many models on offer, Alfa Romeo was once one of the world’s most important nameplates and the creator of several iconic cars. The Alfa Romeo Montreal is one of them and Italian designer Luca Serafini just created a modern version of the two-door sports car. Affectionately named the Montreal Vision GT, like the official Vision Gran Turismo concepts various automakers have created since 2013, this virtual car is a cool design that Alfa Romeo should consider, at least for a concept vehicle.

Ford resurrected the Bronco, Chevy did so with the Blazer, while Acura/Honda wowed us with the new NSX. What if Lamborghini did a similar trickery and revived one of the biggest names in the business - the Miura?

First of all, it would be an enormous surprise because Lamborghini doesn’t do name revivals. Secondly, we do have something remotely similar. If you go right now to the Lamborghini Museum in Sant’Agata Bolognese in Italy, you can the see Murcielago-based 2006 Lamborghini Miura Concept. It looks awesome. But that was almost a decade and a half ago. Today, the revival of the Miura would go a bit differently and we have young Brazilian visual artist Pedro Ruperto to show us how.

The 26-year old envisioned the modern interpretation of the Miura and he garnished it with a few touches currently adorning the exterior of contemporary Lamborghinis.

Honda is finally dipping its toes into the honey jar with its first-ever electric car, but if the company’s top-level decision-makers share the same vision with Behance’s Dahye Jeong about what the future holds, then the Japanese wouldn’t ignore the self-driving trend.

Back in 2018, Honda joined forces with General Motors in the endeavor of building an autonomous vehicle. At that time, CNBC reported that the Japanese carmaker is taking a stake in GM’s subsidiary Cruise Holdings, with the full investment rising to $2.8. The car would be one for wide use, with the American carmaker handling the assembly process at one of its plants. There’s not much to be heard on the topic ever since, but this Honda Skyroom concept might hint at what’s in store.

The new Toyota Supra has been one of the most hyped-up new cars to hit the market in recent years, for various reasons. One of them has to do with its legacy and the huge popularity of the 2JZ-powered fourth-generation Supra and the entire cult that surrounded the Japanese sports car.

Another reason is the partnership between Toyota and BMW, whose fruits are the said 2020 Supra and its cousin, the new BMW Z4. The third argument, which also happens to be strongly related to the first, comes from the Supra’s suitability for tuning jobs. Engine boosts, unique body parts, neon lights, huge wings, you name it. There isn’t a single thing that hasn’t been tried on a Supra.

So, whenever someone like Evasive Motorsports announces a widebody Toyota Supra based on the new model that’s also coming to SEMA 2019, our interest naturally piques. Read on.

Fellas, since there’s an official-y National Video Games Day celebrated in the US of A on September 12th, it’s only natural to have our news feeds flooded with all sorts of marketing gimmicks that would attract even more fans (to be read buyers) to the already-big industry that is video gaming. And believe it or not, esports are coming in hot as a rapidly-growing niche.

OK, but what’s the automotive industry have to do with it? Well, it turns out Nissan got its designers’ creative juices flowing with three esports chair designs that are inspired by the carmaker’s GT-R, LEAF EV, and Armada SUV household names.