Flight of fancy or future flivver?
You won’t be alone in asking that question as you view some of the latest experimental designs on display at the Chicago Auto Show.
The concept vehicles, as they are called, are there for several reasons. Some, such as the Ford Triton pickup, are thinly veiled precursors of production models. Others, such as Buick’s XP2000, are design studies that were considered, then rejected for production, but still provide valuable clues to the company’s styling direction. Still others, such as the Chrysler Atlantic, are pure design exercises, intended to let the stylists’ creative juices flow unimpeded by corporate dictates or practical parameters.
Chrysler makes no bones about the purpose of the Atlantic, a sensuously styled and exquisitely detailed luxury coupe, meant to satisfy “a longing for the days when cars were designed on an artist’s canvas.”
Classically inspired designs such as the Atlantic recall headier days, when companies such as General Motors created dozens of special designs for lavish road shows like Motorama.
Henry Lauve, a retired GM design executive, worked on many Motorama concepts, including the trend-setting 1951 LeSabre show car and the 1952 Corvette.
“The LeSabre was a special car for (design boss) Harley Earl, with a lot of new and unusual features,” Lauve recalls. “We took it to New York for a preview, and Harley was showing it to the Prince of Wales, explaining how, if it started to rain, the top would go up automatically and lock in place. The prince had a martini in his hand and he said, `Oh, like this?’ and poured it over the car. He blew a fuse (in the car), and we had to work all night to fix it for the opening of the show the next day.”
While the LeSabre show car never reached production, the original Corvette was intended to gauge public reaction to a low-priced sports car, says Lauve.
“I brought a Fiat Ghia racing coupe back from Paris in ’51. Harley Earl thought it was a wonderful car and said, `We have to have a sports car.’ So we did the Corvette (in ’52) and showed it in New York. Everybody said, `Wow!’ “
Within a year, production versions of the Corvette began reaching Chevrolet showrooms, and a legend was born.
Nearly 40 years later, Chrysler saw a virtual replay of that with its experimental Viper sports car. Introduced at the 1989 Detroit show, public reaction to the Viper was so favorable, the automaker rushed the brutish two-seater into production in a mere 36 months.
Automotive historian and author Michael Lamm, of Stockton, Calif., says, “Designers are like kids testing the waters. They want to know how far they can go and what they can get away with. Concept cars give them some indication.”
An example is Ford’s series of Probe concept vehicles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The 1981 Probe III provided an early look at the car that became the Sierra in Europe and the Merkur XR4 in the U.S. Other Probes pushed the design envelope even further, says Lamm, so that by the time the original Ford Taurus reached the market in 1986, its swoopy, aerodynamic lines were no longer considered radical and unsettling.
“But a lot of concept cars are presented to the public after the production model has been designed and is in the pipeline,” adds Lamm. “Take the Pontiac Trans Sport. The show vehicle was designed (in 1986) after the production model was already set. It helps the public get used to seeing new designs.”
Among the concept vehicles on display theis year in Chicago:
Named for the new overhead-cam truck engine family that debuts this fall, the Ford Triton pickup signals the design theme of the new 1996 Ford F150, the next generation of America’s best-selling vehicle (1994 sales: 646,000). Longer, wider and taller than today’s F-series, Triton features a leather-trimmed cockpit with dual air bags, plus four-wheel anti-lock brakes and a 4.6-liter, dual overhead cam, V-8, the first of the new Triton-series engines.
Resembling a scaled-down Aurora, the Oldsmobile Antares, a precursor of the mid-1997 replacement for the Cutlass Supreme, rides on a long 113.5-inch wheelbase, but measures only 188.3 inches total, about 5 inches shorter than the current Cutlass. Among the more notable interior features are Swiss sports-watch style gauges and a pop-out Guidestar navigation system. Only the latter is anticipated on the production model, as is a new 3.5-liter, 225-h.p., twin-cam, 6-cylinder version of the Aurora’s Northstar-based 4-liter, V-8.
A forerunner of the new Grand Prix that bows in mid-1996, the Pontiac Grand Prix 300 GPX features a longer 110.5-inch wheelbase, larger 18-inch Goodyear tires (than the production model at 107.5 inches and 15-inch tires) and a supercharged, intercooled Series II 3800 V-6, with Ram Air induction and rated at 300-h.p. The production version is likely to forego the supercharger, but its optional 3.4-liter, twin-cam, V-6 should make an honest 225-h.p. Other features likely to reach production include a Torsen traction control system and magnetic speed variable assist steering.
The rear-wheel-drive Buick XP2000 started life as the GMX127 project from Holden’s in Australia. With a more conventional nose and tail, it was originally the prototype for the proposed 1997 replacement for the Roadmaster, which was to have been based on the next-generation Commore VT (nee Opel Omega). Retrofitted with a Riviera-like nose and tail, the big four-door sits on a 115.9-inch wheelbase and measures 193.7 inches total. Power comes from a pushrod 5-liter, V-8. GM engineers also use the XP2000 as a rolling showcase for advanced safety technology. Inside are eight air bags, including two in the front seatbacks for rear-seat passengers and one in each of the four doors.
Ford’s SHO-Star concept van is a potential performance version of the Windstar, equipped with a Yamaha-modified 3-liter, 220-h.p., dual overhead cam, V-6 from the Taurus SHO. Ford engineers added appropriate chassis modifications to complement the extra power, including higher-rate struts, shocks and springs and low-profile 17-inch Michelin XGT-Z tires. Executives playfully suggested they could easily produce several thousand a year-if enough potential customers surfaced with $30,000 apiece.
Described by one Ford insider as a pet project of global development boss Jac Nasser, the Lincoln L2K (Ford shorthand for Lincoln 2000) concept roadster could find its way into L-M dealerships in 1999, if key Ford executives figure out how to build and sell it at an attractive price. Intended as a design study, Ford officials say privately the vehicle is being seriously evaluated for production toward the end of the decade. The rub is how to build a low-volume model like the L2K without investing $1 billion or more in new tooling. One answer is to share components with another production model. In the case of the proposed two-seater, its sibling may be the new near-luxury (priced in the low- to mid-$30,000 range) sedan (Code name: DEW98) Lincoln plans to unveil in the 1999 model year. The new DEW98 four-door is to be built on a rear-wheel-drive chassis, with power from a new 3.5-liter, twin-cam, V-8. The pieces could be shared with the L2K roadster to help keep the price around $40,000, Ford insiders say.
Acura officials say this Lincoln-esque CL-X concept provides strong visual clues to the new near-luxury coupe and sedan designed in the U.S. to be assembled at Honda’s East Liberty, Ohio, plant, beginning in spring 1996. Designed to accommodate a V-6 or a small V-8, the production version of the CL reportedly will be powered by a new 2.5-liter, dual overhead cam, V-6 and will be priced from the mid-20s. Export versions (including a right-hand drive) will follow in late 1996.
Yet another precursor of a potential production model, the American-designed Hyundai HCD-III is a cross between a sporty coupe and a compact sport-utility vehicle. Features include an adjustable suspension, full-time four-wheel drive, dual air bags, ABS, a multi-configuration, rolltop roof system and a turbocharged 2-liter, 240-h.p., dual overhead cam, 4-cylinder. Hyundai officials hint a version of the HCD-III could be built on the next-generation Elantra platform in ’98 or ’99-possibly in Quebec.
A future design study that is a cross between a small pickup and a compact sport-utility, the Plymouth Back Pack could be the basis for a baby Jeep with modular panels, say Chrysler insiders.
Meant to recall the low-slung European designs of the ’30s and inspired by such earlier concepts as the Chrysler 300 and the Thunderbolt, the Chrysler Atlantic features a 4-liter, 325-h.p., dual overhead cam in-line 8-cylinder engine, plus double-wishbone front and rear suspension and four-wheel disc brakes with ABS.
Ford’s dream factory conjured up the GT90, an outrageous high-performance concept vehicle intended to evoke images of the fabled GT40 and Mark II LeMans racers of the late ’60s. Developed in less than six months, the mid-engine two-seater features a longitudinally mounted V-12 made by grafting portions of two 90-degree Ford modular V-8 engines together. Coupled with a five-speed Ferguson racing gearbox, the engine can propel the GT90 to speeds in excess of 235 miles per hour, with 0- to 60-m.p.h. acceleration in a mere 3.1 seconds. The car’s steel birdcage is wrapped in a skin of Kevlar, carbonfiber and fiberglass for extra strength and ultralight weight.
