This slippery love toy of an automobile, which represents the pinnacle of German experiments in aero, was designed in around 1936. Its designers, working out of the Northern German town of Gottingen were Karl Schlör and engineer Krauss Maffei.

The full-scale car was built on the chassis of the rear-engine Mercedes-Benz 170H, and it scored a never-before-seene low in drag coefficient of Cd: 0.113.

Perhaps inevitably known as ‘the Egg’ it was shown at the Berlin Auto Show in the fateful year of 1939. Rumour has it that after going into mothballs during the war until the car was ‘liberated’ by a team of British soldiers in the British sector of Belin.

We can’t be sure of anything else, except that this was an incredible feat of aerodynamic styling. Herr Schlor died in 1997, and perhaps the secret of the Egg’s wherabouts forever.

Unless you, of course, know different.

via Deisel punks

Shout out to the guys over at Bike Exif for these brilliant renders from Russian designer Mikhail Smolyanov.

Ranging from Phillip K Dick stype futurism to the Neo-Retro avaiation-automotive crossover, there’s something charcateristically russian about the designs.

We reckon Smolyanov must have been influenced by the aesthetics of Sputnik and the early Russian manned space programme.

For more great stuff from the Eastern margins get yourself to

Solifuge Design.

Having spent the last week or so belting about in the rather sublime B road bad boy that is the Mitsubishi Evo X, which has a rather spartan, rather lack lustre interior, (stay tuned later this wek for more on one of our favourite everyman heros), we’ve been finding ourselves longing for a cosy, testosterone-enriched mancave of a cabin like one of these.

The example of sixties American futursm is a cross breed in fact : the 1963 Chevy Corvair Testudo was a design study by Carrozeria Bertone that took a space age piece of Americana and gave it the Turin design treatment.

The Lancia Sibilo concept, meanwhile, was a typically outrageous seventies evolution, also from Bertone, of what had been the groundbreaking Stratos.

For some reason the Stratos wasn’t seen as good enough for the futurists. They just couldn’t let it lie! Was there something about the seventies that made the leather extra luscious?

The Maserati=engined Citroen collab of the seventies that was the SM (above) is, of course, the ultimate in cool interiors that actually made it out on to the road. Bless that Franco-Italian aesthetic that defined what it was to build a car interior that you wanted to spend time in, not just fill up the spaces in your day.

We’re looking forward to the return of this sort of modernism…

1XLR1
Squint a little bit and that front end looks like the Scirocco. But it’s not. The apogee of VW’s new generation of aspiration toward hyper-efficiency, the new Volkswagen XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle (SEV) was unveiled at the Qatar Motor Show this year. Pioneering construction techniques, an advanced plug-in hybrid drivetrain and innovative packaging all play a part in allowing the XL1 to return 313 mpg on the combined cycle while emitting 24 g/km of CO2 to set a new benchmark for vehicle efficiency.

2 W12 (2001)

The W12 was launched at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2001, and may or may not have been one of the earliest aspirational victims of the post 9/11 dip in economic bravado.

Developing 600 bhp at 7000 rpm and maximum torque 457 lbs ft at 5800 rpm, the W12 Coupé, which was commissioned as a design study fro Italdesign, was reckoned to reach 62 mph in less than 3.5 seconds, to go to a top speed of over 217 mph. Weighing just 1200 kg, it was slated to be one of the fastest sports cars in the world.

The key to this performance was a mid-mounted lightweight and compact 6.0-litre 12 cylinder engine with 4 valves per cylinder. The layout of the W12 was basically two narrow-angle V6 cylinder blocks joined side by side at an angle of 72 degrees onto a common crankshaft. This makes a “double V” or “W” formation of this exceptionally smooth and compact W12 engine.

This was of course epoch making in the end, as a version of this engine ended up in the Phaeton. On 14 October 2001 a prototype of the concept set the world record for distance covered in 24 hours. On the Nardo high-speed circuit in southern Italy the sports car covered 4402.8 miles at an average speed of 183.45 mph, improving on the previous record set by a Chevrolet LTS Corvette by a margin of 7.5 mph. At the same time the team of drivers broke two other world records in the W12 Coupé and six vehicle class speed records.

2: Concept T (2004)

This offroad coupé concept was launched at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, 2004. Combining genuine off-road capability with the low-slung, dynamic appearance of a coupé, it initially was installed with a 241 PS V6 petrol engine, allied to 4MOTION four-wheel drive and a six-speed tiptronic automatic transmission.

0 to 62 mph was said to take 6.9 seconds on the way to a limited top speed of 143 mph.
Gullwing doors (always a press-gathering eye-catcher) first open outwards slightly before rising vertically, for convenience in tight parking spaces.

With no arches to frame them, the 19” alloy wheels appeared to ‘float’ beneath the body. This theme was continued with the striking lights, front and rear, which also look as if they are suspended in mid-air.

Unusually, the twin stainless steel exhaust pipes are part of the tail light modules, for a neat, more integrated look. For more flexibility, the concept T had a T-bar roof, whose twin panels can be removed easily, as can the rear hard top roof with integral tailgate. Hellish, innovative fun. A buggy for grownups.

3: Atacama (2006)

The perrennially successful crafter van was given the rugged, offroad treatment in this concept from 2006. Built by the Design Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany it was rumoured to become a limited production vehicle, but, unfortunately, it never happened.

The design study gained its striking presence through its proportions. The front end, with slight modifications and the aluminium components such as the radiator, headlights or air vents, also add to the Atacama’s powerful appearance. The side air inlets in the wings lend the Atacama a sporty finish.

For protection during off-road use, the vehicle was equipped with robust panelling and powerfully modelled wheel arches. Aluminium inserts further emphasised its off-road appeal and give the Atacama a more exclusive appearance. The unique side window design demonstrates the integration of exterior and interior.

The roof railing formed in a U-shape with integrated box is a modern interpretation of a carrier system. To match this element, the team designed the rear ladder which frames the brand logo in its shape and also has the door handle integrated in it.

We think VW missed a trick here. What more perfect a surf wagon would the Atacama have been?

4 The Eco Racer

At the 2005 edition of the Tokyo motor show, one of the biggest surprises came from VW in the shape of the rear-drive, mid-engined Eco Racer.

It had a carbon fibre shell, racing running gear and a ‘race mode’ switch that would sharpen steering and the shifts of the DSG gearbox.

The engine was a a four cylinder 1.5-litre turbo-diesel. It produced134bhp at 4000rpm and 184lb ft of torque between 1900 and 3750rpm. This was enough for VW to make the claim that the Ecoracer could move to 62mph in 6.3sec and on to a top speed of 142mph. It was also reckoned to return as much as 83mpg.

You could take off the top and turn it into a roadster, too. All in all– this sort of cheap to run sporting format is a rare one — hardly anyone has managed to pull these two desirable motoring poles together — and who would have been better to do that than the boys from Wolfsberg?

Vauxhall’s XVR from back in 1966 still manages to tweak the inspiration with its slick, ‘vette-ish lines.

We always were reminded of seemed to ape the imagined futurism of the Durango 95 from A Clockwork Orange (which was actually a Nova kit car, apparently).

The XVR was one of the most interesting products of a very creative period from Luton, a collection of which we saw at Goodwood a couple of years ago.

Did the ‘Farrah Fawcett’ version of the Corvette Stingray, which launched in 1968, gain inspiration from this concept. Could a Vauxhall really have inspired an American Icon?

The Audi Avus Quattro was revealed twenty years ago at the Tokyo Motor Show. It was probably Audi’s most radical concept; rocking a W12 engine that made 509 BHP. The company reckoned it would crack 210MPH and pull away to 100KPH in less than 3 seconds; it rolled on 20 inch rims and was made of super-light aluminium — exactly the sort of tech current in Audi’s endurance racers today. The very identity of the Avus concept drew on the glory days of modernist silver arrows from Auto Union and updated it for an era that heralded the 200MPH hypercars we know today.

Its brochure was a classic piece of Germanic automotive design (see above).

Whatever you think of outrageous concepts you’ve got to admire Audi’s derring-do, not to mention their undying commitment to technological innovation. The whole idea of making four powered corners mainstream can stem for this sort of risk-taking and passionate pursuit of the new.

And they did have rather good ads too…

His is not one of the Italian names that dances trippingly off the tongue when speaking of innovation in car design. In fact, the prodigious moustache wearer and smoker of cigars isn’t even Italian. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a visionary of note. In fact, Luigi Colani is one of a dying breed of automotive modernists who believes in things like speed and the future — and as such we believe he should be given more recognition than he has to date received.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Everything you need to know about Mr Colani can be found on his company’s website — and know this: though he may not be producing any cars that will find their way into the forecourts of mainstream dealerships: his biog is a colourful testament to passion within design.

Two of our favourite Colani creations are the tumescent sports car from the late seventies which, it appears, was inspired by the free flowing, rounded forms of the natural world — and the Castrol-sponsored early experiement into speed and fuel consumption from 1974 (see images below).

Long may he draw and be inspired. We need a few more like him…

http://www.colani.ch/movie.html

We don’t really know why skirts ever went out of fashion. There’s something obvious about the flow of air afforded by fared rear three-quarters. To quote Charlie Sheen (sooth-saying nutcase du jour) “Duh, win!”

And the fact that overt slipperyness has never been everyone’s idea of automotive style shouldn’t be a surprise. Classic car design has always been primarily about aesthetics rather than aerodynamic efficiency.

But VW’s long-drawn out exploration of a the possibility of a one litre car that can travel 100 KMs on a single litre of fuel has inspired a succession of interesting looking concepts. The idea that covering a car’s wheels leads to quickness and fuel efficiency is essentially a pre-WW2 modernist notion.

And the XL-1 concept captures that futurist spirit whilst at the same time being a realistic exploration of the marketable potentials of hypermiling.

If fuel prices keep rising at this rate, the slippery virtue will soon become a necessity.

It’s been a while since we posted pics of an interesting concept from the past. But Alfa’s Scighera is a fine example of a piece of imagineering from the 1990a that is up there with some of the most outragous concepts from the mid seventies.

It might be no coincidence that this beauty springs from the mind of Fabrizio Giugiaro (yes, the son of the great Giorgetto himself).

It’s difficult to see what this design study from Italdesign was aiming at, but you can see the influence the design has hoovered up. There are elements from Bertone designed classics like the Alfa Carabo, the Lamborghini Miura and even the Stratos zero.

There are pure bred Italdesign flourishes too, though, like the low slung, vented front that recalls early concepts that lead to the BMW M1. And last, and you can’t forget of course, Mr G senior’s ugly Aztec.

The prototype had a mid-engined, twin-turbo 3 litre V6 which apparently produced 400bhp and its 4WD handling must be a doozy.

Apparently the car can be seen in the permanent collection on display in the Italdesign atelier.

Lancia’s ECV (Experimental Composite Vehicle) was a prototype Group S rally car that was supposed to replace the Lancia Delta S4 in WRC’s 1988 season. Sadly, and as we often lament, Group B as well as Group S cars were banned from competition by the FIA in late 1986.

The ECV, therefore, never mudded its strangely plasticky panels.

Shame, because this boxy, short wheelbased beast had been projected to produce 600 horsepower from its innovative 1.8 Twin Turbo ‘triflux’ engine. The Kevlar and Carbon fibre construction would probably have made it a serious lightweight contender.

Despite the lack of credentials Carlo Gaino of Synthesis design created a second generation of the ECV (in white).

IF ONLY Group B performance was allowed to be brought back into the WRC arena!