Two new Concept Cars

[Lionheart]

Hey all,


Here are some new concept cars making the rounds at the shows.

BMW Vision

This is a really radical drift away from BMW's normal 'Conservative' design stance. This is a 'curvacious and flowing' experiment that makes the exterior body panels appear to be more like flowing sheets sculpted by the wind rather then like the usual hull. The tail lights are particularly interesting, appearing to be like another sheet of material coming out of the folds.

The interior and especially the instrument panel are quite simple compared to other cars, especially concept cars. I think we will see more simplicity in the future in some trend lines.

Drive train is of course hybrid, electric coupled to a 3 cylinder turbo diesel.

Nissan Land Glider

This one is called the Nissan Land Glider;

This very narrow little speeder can lean into turns like the old GM Lean Machine and the new British Carver. The craftsmanship on this prototype is incredible and first rate. It makes me think they are going to try for the market that VW is about to create with their new tiny micro car.

The Nissan Land Glider is the latest in a recent flurry of tandem-style concept cars that propose a one-plus-one seating arrangement - think Renault Twizy and VW L1 - where a single passenger sits behind the driver in a narrow-bodied and low-slung vehicle.

Despite the compact four-wheeler's futuristic look - a world away from current conventional car packaging - Nissan design boss Shiro Nakamura is taking the concept idea very seriously, as he told Car Design News: "It's not just 'okay we made a nice show car now forget about it.' We've made some studies already on how to bring it to production."

The working prototype is only 3100mm long, 1100mm wide and 1415mm tall and is able to lean through corners like a motorbike up to an angle of 17 degrees, all controlled from a U-shaped video game-style drive-by-wire steering device. Complex tilting body panels move independently of the wheel arches to angle the cabin for better stability during cornering, which when in motion, give the car a strangely pleasing hermit crab-like gait and appearance.

Nakamura sees the model as an upmarket sporty and fun second car for urban environments rather than cheap everyman go-anywhere transport. Power comes from two electric motors in the rear tapping into lithium-ion batteries mounted beneath the floor to ensure zero-emission motoring and recharging is designed to be made wirelessly at induction plate refueling spots.

Exterior design inspiration came from Nissan's top-end GT-R sportscar as Nakamura continues: "It's totally different but some inspiration comes from there, it's a little bit robot-like, like the GT-R."

Right now there are no plans for production, but Nakamura says the technology is highly feasible and could be made reality in "a couple of years" if the green light was given.

www.cardesignnews.com

[cheezyflier]

pretty cool but the doors on the bmw will never make production. can you guess what would happen if you tried to park it in an underground garage? :isadizzy:

the nissan is way cool too. i have loved the carver ever since the company was started, years ago. it's a shame they are already out of business.
i doubt america will see either the nissan or the volkswagen. (which i think is not intended for production anyhow)

[Lionheart]

The VW should be here. They seem to be quiet serious about it. At least thats what they said.

Another bad point about the all glass doors on the Bimmer is side crash protection. The production version (heh) would have a ton of steel in it, some side impact airbags, etc, etc, etc, etc.

So few cars make to 'purely' from concept to production. Some of the few were the Lamborghini Countach, the Dodge Viper, and perhaps a couple of others..



Bill

[stiz]

"Nissan Land Glider .. the closest we could get to the carver without getting sued"

[Bjoern]

The BMW looks cool, but that Nissan is as fugly as the night.

[Chacha]

Vision is cool, I like the way it look, and even with its windows, the parking garage height is 8 feet - I think! And look at the dashboard... impressive, futuristic....

[Lionheart]

Vision is cool, I like the way it look, and even with its windows, the parking garage height is 8 feet - I think! And look at the dashboard... impressive, futuristic....

It is a pretty wild dash.

The center of the column has a screen in it which has multi-function readouts.