Audi Skeleton race car inspired by bobsleds is designed to appease your inner daredevil!

Posted on 01/09/2021 by Gaurav Sood

While we talk of all the cool futuristic concept cars that focus on the ultimate driving comfort, hair-raising speed, and the overall vehicle dynamics – automotive designer David Gallego takes a hard detour into uncharted territory with this Audi Skeleton concept.

The automotive concept is something more than the usual passive driving on the streets or circuits. It is based on the lines of the Skeleton winter sliding sport wherein the rider maneuvers a small sled commonly known as skeleton bobsled on speedy frozen tracks. In part, it also has the reminiscences of karting and sidecar racing competitions. The head-first lying position is what this concept draws inspiration from in a four-wheeler iteration, of course, meant only for the true daredevil racers!

The designer combines his inspiration with the Bauhaus philosophy to give this niche Audi concept a definitive linear and geometric form. The aesthetics of the concept reveal the nature of objects – such as an inhaler, bicycle’s front frame section, and even a modern door handle. The result, an authoritative Audi four-wheeled race car that takes the rider for an unprecedented spin on the race tracks.

To support circuit racing, the car comes with a reinforced body shell made from carbon fiber to protect the driver from a head injury in case of a collision, much like the stellar monocoque shell of formula-1 cars that protect the driver from neck-breaking impacts. The driver sits precariously close to the front wheels and the electric-powered racing demon has batteries on the side pods – just ahead of the rear wheels.

The racing car character is evident in the aerodynamic design honed by a very wide stance overall. Since this is an Audi, the R18 like personality doesn’t come as a surprise. Most of all, I love the combination of the adrenaline-inducing skeleton bobsled design with an electric-powered race car, it is certainly unique. Would something like this actually be feasible as far as driver safety is concerned? That’s a hard call to make!

Designer: David Gallego

Rolls-Royce takes inspiration from luxury yachts to create this bespoke handmade coupé!

Posted on 27/05/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

Luxury can mean a lot of things–spending the summer floating by on a yacht in the Mediterranean, it could mean strolling around town in a bespoke Rolls-Royce, or it might mean reviving the Rolls-Royce coachbuilding team to design cars that make you feel like you’re on a yacht. Comparable to luxury shipbuilding yards like Feadship in the Netherlands, the reestablished coachbuilding team at Rolls Royce designs motorcars using the vision of the patrons who commission them. Finding laps of luxury and inspiration on the sea, the coachbuilding team’s commissioned debuts, designed and built-in confidentiality, are three built-to-order Rolls-Royce motorcars called Boat Tails inspired by the build and structural anatomy of yachts.

The Boat Tail, a coupé born from the patrons’ enduring love for the sea and taste for nautical design, was designed specifically to celebrate the hand-craftsmanship and relative history of yacht building. Three coupés inspired by nautical shipbuilding design have been built under the modern coachbuilding department at Rolls-Royce. Merging today’s advanced technology with the trusted bespoke coachwork of yesteryear, the Boat Tail’s hand-formed chassis cradles a 19-foot bonnet that covers the car’s 6.75-liter V-12 engine. The stone azure coat of the Boat Tail slopes to a wisped finish around the rear and borders the motorcar’s painted pantheon grille.

Inside, the Boat Tail comes equipped with technologies and comforts that have never before graced the luxury-ridden Rolls-Royce interior. Among other hors d’oeuvres and apéritifs to bedeck the Boat Tail’s rear butterfly trunk, revealed through twin side-hinged compartments, champagne is stored in ice, and caviar is kept cool in trunk refrigerators and ice-boxes. Blooming from the same trunk cabin, a high-tensile fabric parasol provides shade and locks in place on stainless steel poles and aluminum connectors, stretching over carbon-fiber frame stays to remain in place even in the windiest of conditions.

Rolls-Royce carries a rich coachbuilding history that dates back to the 20th century. Progressing past their 2017 bespoke car building platform, Rolls-Royce built the one-off Boat Tail for an unnamed client, firmly establishing their specialized coachbuilding department for the 21st century. The many Rolls-Royce coachbuilders of the past would begin with the chassis, dedicating their expertise to the frame, motor, and suspension, before handing it off to different coach makers who would design the rest of the car’s body and interior according to the patron’s specifications. Today, Rolls-Royce announced a permanent coachbuilding department made up of skilled engineers and designers to roll out built-to-order motorcars that surpass the coachbuilding endeavors from the past, planting it distinctly in a motorcade fleet of its own.

Designer: Rolls-Royce

A rear-side parasol opens up from the Boat Tail’s twin butterfly trunk compartments for additional shade and weather protection.

The two-door coupé slopes to a gradient finish in stone azure blue.

Luxe additions like caviar and cooled champagne grace the inside of the Boat Tail’s trunk.

Gleaming aluminum panels line the Boat Tail’s sides and top.

Equipped even with coordinated watches for the bespoke model’s owners, Rolls-Royce made it happen with the Boat Tail.

Creators behind the Boat Tail call it the trip and the destination, equipped with all the amenities one might need for a highway rendezvous that culminates with a cliffside picnic.

A high-tensile fabric parasol provides shade and protection whenever rain comes.

This futuristic Volkswagen DJ-inspired car’s roof lets music lovers display their beats

Posted on 01/05/2020 by Ruchi Thukral

We love concept designs here, in fact, Yanko Design started out with a passion for concepts! And concept cars always catch my attention because they give you a glimpse of the kind of future we always see in movies. Or even the Jetsons which was a futuristic cartoon (does anyone remember?) that showed compact flying cars and that’s what I first thought of when I saw IRIS, a conceptual Volkswagen electric car. It may not fly but it instantly tells you that it was made for a sustainable future.

The interesting thing about IRIS is that designer Arturo Tedeschi used tools like DJs do with instruments and samplers. “IRIS is the output of a cross over between algorithmic design, virtual reality, and videogames,” says Tedeschi. I can see the DJ aesthetic with the neon lights and it works – crank up the volume and you’ve got yourself a show on the road. The project beautifully merges unlimited potentials of algorithmic modeling to create freeform shapes rendered in real-time with realistic materials featuring the famous game-engine. “The light gradient is created by moving the hand controllers like a magic wand and the wheel rims are generated trough a vortex animation of fluid material,” says the team while explaining their design and development process.

This two-seater has been envisioned to be an electric car with a futuristic aesthetic that balances smooth curves and angular elements. You can truly see the designers’ process while they tried to put their thoughts on paper through hand-drawn sketches, reality control (MindeskVR), algorithmic modeling, and finally rendering – the team is not shy to show it all and inspire more designers to take things up a notch! IRIS was modeled to fit the Volkswagen range and the team had the honor of digitally presenting it to Volkswagen at the ‘Future Technology for Car Design’ event held this month.

Designers: Arturo Tedeschi and Maurizio Degni