Being a designer for Ferrari is second on my list of dream jobs, right below working as a Disney Imagineer, and slightly above writing for an automotive website. I’m not the only one though, it’s a popular dream, which is why you get thousands of random design or engineering students coming up with their own vision of the new Ferrari flagship every year. The internet is swimming with independent designs, and still, finding a really original one is difficult.
Israeli designer Amir Glinik has my attention though. His concept of a V4 motorcycle is based on the Ferrari Enzo, and I love it. It has beautiful vintage lines that capture the original Ferrari design nicely, and yet it’s almost 100% aluminum to keep weight down, and has a drive by wire computerized system.
Check out the pictures:
Bigger than any vehicle BMW’s MINI division has ever offered, the new MINI Concept Crossman [pictured above courtesy of the shutterbugs at Jalopnik]debuted at the 2008 Paris Auto Show today. An AWD drive train supposedly offers a more rugged, off-road feeling, but we wouldn’t but the MINI Crossman for weekends in the mountains. What we would buy it for, however, is the nifty MINI Center Globe. Exactly like it sounds, the spherical control module located in the center stack is by far one of the MINI Crossman’s most impressive, innovative features, screw the swivel-mount doors.
Dubbed the “GTbyCITROEN”, the highly anticipated video game-bound Citroën has finally made it’s live debut, looking every inch the Storm Trooper. Although I mentioned this before when the first teaser shots were announced, it would behoove me to mention it again, lest any young auto enthusiasts out there fall under the false impression that Citroën’s GTbyCITROEN will ever hit the production line: A collaborative effort between Citroën and gaming company Polyphony, the Citroën Concept GT is merely a full scale mock-up of the Citroën GT that will premiere in PlayStation 3’s Gran Turismo Prolouge5, and it is not intended for production.
The rather un-BMW program intended to design and develop a new vehicle for city dwellers, Project i, is starting to take shape. Project i is a decidely long-term committment by the German automaker to offer a wide range of options, including electric vehicles, over the next decade. This follows on BMW’s announcement of deep cutbacks on V8 engine production in the coming months and years.
The guys over at Jalopnik managed to get their gear-greased fingers on some leaked stills of the new BMW X1 Concept set to debut at the 2008 Paris Auto Show next week.
To be breif: here’s another example of a vaguel phallic shaped car that will be driven largely by soccer moms and/or Yani concert-goers. I really can hardly contain my excitement.
Forget about hydrogen or electric or any of the alternative energy vehicles that are so popular with the worldsavers. Screw solar, the sun is far away. There’s one resource that is constantly increasing and right here on Earth…human power. The GYM concept car uses just that.
The car is powered by an electric motor and battery pack, but the batteries are charged either through a handy plug-in socket, or more interestingly, by harnessing the energy created by the driver when parked and working out using the built-in exercise equipment. The GYM has a stepping machine, rowing machine, bench press, pull up simulator and arm weights. Hardcore.
Last week, Citroën released teaser shots of the impending Paris Auto Show debutante, the video game-bound Citroën Concept GT. This week, Citroën has not only added another photo to the Concept GT’s preview pictorial, but they’ve also thrown in a teaser video to boot.
As was the case with the earlier teaser shots, the new Citroën GT vid was released jointly by Citroën and the GranTurismo Prolouge5 PlayStation 3 project.
Looking to generate some hype for the BMW Concept X1 that’s scheduled to premiere at the 2008 Paris Auto Show next week, BMW-web.tv uploaded video footage giving us a sneak peak of the new BMW Concept X1 that is strangely reminiscent of those 90’s-era slightly instructional videos I used to sit through in French class that always fell just short of identifying with the American teenage demographic.
At any rate, according to BMWblog, the BMW X1 will be available with either a rear- or front-wheel drivetrain, and its optional 4 or 6 cylinder engine offerings will be equipped to run on either diesel or standard fuel. Slated to make its first debut in the European market, the X1 is expected to be placed and priced somewhere between the BMW 3 Series Wagon and the BMW X3 - no word yet on how that would translate for a North American introduction.
While certainly not anywhere near a production version in it’s present form, many are speculating that the Fuse concept may contain the basic design elements of the the next generation tC coupe from Scion.
There are a whole line of vehicle concepts under the “Up!” umbrella from VW, meant to explore the possibilities of a new power source centered around the world’s first high temperature fuel cell and lithium-ion battery system. With announcements on automotive innovations being made almost on a daily basis, it would be easy for VW’s achievements to get lost in the fray. However, there are good reasons why this concept shouldn’t.
