Magical Thinking Breaks Amarpreet Gill’s Bristol Car Concept

I really wish industrial designers would leave the engineering to, you know, engineers. Nothing irks me than a designer trying his or her hand at conjuring up some magical, black box powerplant for their vehicle design studies. Take Amarpreet Gill for instance, a Leicester-based designer and the brains behind the blandly named Bristol Car Concept.

Using a combination of piezoelectric “threads” as well as photovoltaic paint and glass, the Bristol Car Concept “harvests energy from the surrounding environment, rewarding the consumer with the gift of free energy”.

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First Look at the New Infiniti JX 7-Seat Crossover

Infiniti’s slow striptease of its upcoming JX crossover continues today with the release of the first real-life photograph of the seven-passenger model, which will receive its public outing in concept form at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 18, 2011.

The Japanese automaker had previously shown a teaser sketch of the luxury crossover that will debut in production trim at the Los Angeles Auto Show this November and go on sale as the 2013 Infiniti JX in the Spring of 2012. It will be built at Nissan’s assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.

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Rumors: Kia to Unveil V8 RWD Sports Car Concept at Frankfurt Motor Show

During the past few years, Kia has completely transformed its image from a manufacturer of affordable, but rather unexceptional, cars to that of an automaker that offers a stylish and coherent range, thanks in no small part to the hiring of ex-VW Group designer Peter Schreyer. Now, however, it is moving in uncharted waters if a recent report from What Car is accurate. Read more »

2011 Frankfurt Show Preview: Renault Reimagines Kangoo with Frendzy Concept

After the sporty DeZir rear-wheel drive coupe, the funky Captur three-door crossover and more recently, the practical R-Space minivan, Renault is ready to share its latest concept model with the Frendzy, which was unveiled today ahead of its world premiere at the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show later this fall.

The Frendzy is a fresh take on the small van segment where Renault is currently represented by the Kangoo series that is available in both leisure and commercial versions.

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Race-Prepped Honda Mugen CR-Z RR Concept Ready for Track Action

The almost production ready Honda Mugen CR-Z Concept wasn’t the only product from the Japanese automaker’s in-house tuning company to debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Along with the street-legal CR-Z Concept Mugen also brought along a competition version bearing the ‘RR’ moniker. The conceptual Mugen CR-Z RR sports a more dynamic aero package comprising of bespoke parts such as the wider front and rear bumpers with air-vents, side skirts, a rear diffuser and larger rear wing.

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Exagon Furtive e-GT: All-Electric French Coupe Test Driven by Nicolas Prost at Magny-Cours

French racing firm Exagon Motors is continuing the development of its Furtive e-GT, a new all-electric sports coupe that we first laid eyes on at last year’s Paris Motor Show.

The company recently showed off a validation prototype at the Magny Cours racing circuit in France with Nicolas Prost, who is the oldest son of four-time Formula One World Drivers' champion Alain Prost, sitting behind the steering wheel of the 2+2 model.

The Furtive e-GT is scheduled to go on sale in late 2012 with the company planning to build around 100 cars per year. The 2+2 seater coupe will be offered in two flavors, a standard model powered exclusively by two electric motors and a more sophisticated version equipped with an internal combustion engine range extender that works in a similar way to the powertrain system found on GM’s Chevrolet Volt.

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Audi Q3 RS Rumors give Birth to Rendering

The latest news from Audi is that the Ingolstadt automaker is working on a high-performance version of its new Q3 compact SUV. According to inside sources quoted by Auto Motor und Sport magazine in its most recent issue, the brand with the four rings has even decided on the powertrain, which is none other than the 340HP 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five found under the hood of the TT RS and RS3 hot hatch. Read more »

FPV’s Murdered-Out Falcon GT Concept with Supercharged Boss 5.0 V8 Debuts in Melbourne

Not to be outdone by rival Holden Special Vehicles (HSV), Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) unleashed its first-ever concept car at the 2011 Australian International Motor Show in Melbourne.

Unlike HSV and its Black Edition Clubsport and Maloo R8s, FPV went for an all-blacked out look for its bespoke GT muscle car, which is based on the local market, rear-wheel drive Falcon sedan.

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GM’s Holden Readies Rebadged Chevys for 2011 Melbourne Auto Show

It’s a global economy we live in and as such, it doesn’t come to much of a surprise when we see the same vehicles launched under different brands and names in various parts of the world.

Of course, it would be somewhat unfair to Holden if we didn’t mention that it has played a key role in the development and design of several GM products including the 5-door Cruze that will be show in pre-production trim at the 2011 Australian International Motor Show (AIMS), which takes place in Melbourne from July to 10.

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Two for the Price of One: Amadou Ndiaye’s Bugatti Atless Concept

Two cars that helped establish Bugatti’s reputation as a world-class automaker during the difficult interwar period were the Type 35 and Type 57 Atlantic. Stunningly beautiful, intricately built and incredibly powerful, these two cars summed up all that Bugatti was and wanted to be.

Now, Canadian industrial designer Amadou Ndiaye has taken these two classic automobiles and melded them into one with his Bugatti Atless design study.

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2012 Renault Koleos Facelift Inspires Gordini Rendering

Even though Renault’s revival of the Gordini badge has left a bitter taste to fans of the famous nameplate, the French carmaker’s decision to use the brand for upscale versions of its vehicles has proved to be successful with almost two-thirds of Twingo Renaultsport models sold in Europe and one third, in the case of Clio Renaultsport being Gordinis.

Recently, Renault also applied the Gordini treatment, which consists of bespoke styling cues and equipment upgrades, to a non-RenaultSport model, the Wind Roadster. This move inspired Carscoop reader reader L il-k Amaru to render a Gordini version of Renault’s most recent new model, the redesigned Koleos SUV.

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Gordon Murray Unveils Radical T.27 Electric City Car

Gordon Murray is best known as the mastermind behind the creation of McLaren’s F1, which at its time was the fastest supercar of the world – and, before that, for his work and revolutionary ideas in Formula 1 teams such as Brabham. However, that was a long time ago and now Murray is obsessed with creating a unique city car.

So today his company, Gordon Murray Design, unveiled in London their latest ultra compact city car, the T.27. It is a project that was completed in just 17 months from conception to a running prototype, including the design of a new electric powertain by Zytek Automotive Ltd.

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DARPA Selects XC2V to Replace HUMVEEs [with Video)

The trusted HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle), or as the troops (and everyone else) understandably calls it, Humvee, is getting a little long in the tooth, having entered service for the first time in 1984.

So it’s reasonable that DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) started looking for a suitable, and more up-to-date replacement with the Experimental Crowd-derived Combat Support Vehicle project –or, in civilian-speak, “the first crowd-sourced, military relevant vehicle design”.

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2012 BMW M5 Touring Artistically Imagined

Now that we’ve seen what the new 2012 BMW M5 sports sedan looks like, it’s time for some talented hands to shape the Touring version that may or may not follow in the future as the Bavarian company has not yet revealed any plans for a high-performance station wagon model. Read more »

Camal’s Retro Sexy Fiat 500 Marcia Corta

What happens when two people who share their passion for sports cars and motorbikes meet under the right circumstances? It depends, but if we ‘re talking about two Italians, Alessio Minchella (designer) and Alessandro Camorali (surface and product development) who met in 2010 while working at Pininfarina, the result is a new company, Camal, and a new product. Read more »

Rolls-Royce Crafts One-Off Phantom Drophead Coupé Special with Bespoke Details

If your run of the mill Phantom Drophead Coupé is just too darn common, then you may want to take a look at this one-off special that will go on display at the Masterpiece London 2011, which is held in the South Grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, UK, from Saturday 30 June to Friday 5 July 2011. Read more »

Ferrari’s World Design Supercar Contest: Detroit College Video

A few days ago we reported on the seven finalists of Ferrari’s World Design Contest in which the best design schools from all over the globe submit their proposals, both in Autodesk 3D software and in actual 1:4 scale models.

Their goal? To envision the Ferraris of the future or in the words of the Italian supercar company, “design a pure supercar with technology and materials from the latest generation, a car with an extreme architecture, while functional in every aspect”.

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AMV12: Sabino Leerentveld’s V12-Engined Aston Martin Hypercar Concept

Take these three cars: the Jaguar XJ220, the Aston Martin DBR9 and ItalDesign’s BMW Nazca M12 Concept and amalgamate them into an Aston Martin Bulldog for the 21st century and there’s a good chance you’ll have Dutch designer Sabino Leerentveld’s AMV12 design study.

Taut, masculine lines blend seamlessly with Aston Martin’s signature styling to create something truly unique. Presumably fitted with a V12 engine, this front / mid-engined (I honestly can’t tell) design study proposes a model that would theoretically sit above the limited edition Aston Martin One-77.

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Lexus Builds one-off Landaulet LS 600h for Monaco Royal Wedding [with Video]

Whatever your opinion of royal families, you can’t deny that they know a thing or two about spectacular weddings, as evidenced recently by the huge viewership of the Prince William-Kate Middleton tie-up.

Now, another European royal is about to tie the knot: on July 2, Prince Albert of Monaco will stand on the altar besides Carlene Wittstock and exchange vows for richer or poorer (just saying...), better or worse etc.

And Lexus is the one providing the newlyweds’ transportation by building a one-off version of its top of the range LS 600h limo. This version, which has been engineered by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet and took over 2,000 hours to complete, is a Landaulet.

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Scion’s People Talk About the FR-S Concept Coupe

While Toyota’s European engineers are putting the final touches on the production version of the FT-86, here in North America, the Japanese company’s Scion brand is trying to keep the hype going around the FR-S concept car, which debuted at the New York International Auto Show in April.

Scion released two new videos on the its upcoming rear-wheel drive sports car hosted by Ken Gushi, a resident Scion Racing driver who currently pilots a 2009 tC in the Formula Drift series, and Jack Hollis, the Japanese firm’s Vice President.

The two men talk about the FR-S and how it came to be. You can watch the clips by following the jump below.

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