Tag Archives: Ugur Sahin Design

This Rolls-Royce concept mixes a bit of ‘futuristic sportiness’ into the brand’s iconic luxury DNA

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Designed by Netherlands-based Ugur Sahin Design, the USD RR X is a Rolls-Royce concept that walks the careful tightrope between being a legacy RR automobile and being audaciously different. The luxury car borrows its main silhouette from the likes of Wraith and Spectre, with their luxurious-but-sporty appeal, while introducing a few minimalistic tweaks to the overall aesthetic, including sleeker headlights, edge-lines on the side, and those gorgeous aerospace-inspired rims.

Designer: Ugur Sahin Design

The Rolls-Royce X (or RR X for short) balances legacy and avant-garde beautifully, like an experimental music album from a legacy artist looking to break molds. There’s familiarity in every part of the design, and Sahin does a stellar job of maintaining that, while still taking on a reductionist, minimalistic approach wherever possible. The car’s front feels reminiscent of the Phantom, which is arguably the one car that I truly identify as RR’s magnum opus… however, the sides blend a little into Spectre territory, and the rear feels like a complete overhaul, with a split rear-view windscreen and horizontal taillights that are quite unlike RR’s design DNA, but feel like a wonderfully natural fit.

The Rolls-Royce X’s magic lies in the eyes, Chico. The headlights have character, with their slim design that isn’t as slim as the single strip seen on the Spectre. Instead, there’s just enough weight to it, giving the front of the car a discerning stare, while an additional set of fog lights underneath help further illuminate the road ahead.

The RR X’s rear feels like Ugur’s creative playground. The car features a beautiful single-panel windshield that extends all the way to the top, while splitting into two at the rear to create an air-vent-like design. The split rear windscreen is complemented by similarly latitudinal taillights, followed by exhausts built right into the fairing.

“The wheel design is directly inspired by the turbine shapes used in aircraft engines and is a worthy compliment to the RR brand’s rich aviation history,” Ugur Sahin tells Yanko Design. At the center of the wheels lies the classic RR logo, a signature detail seen on the marque’s cars, along with the iconic Spirit of Ecstacy on the hood.

The roof of the car features a single piece of glass that stretches all the way from the front to the top, creating a panoramic windscreen that’s a treat for both the driver as well as passenger. Suicide-style doors are yet another signature element of Rolls-Royce’s cars, and the RR X is no different, featuring doors that lead to a luxurious red interior that makes you feel like a movie star.

Ugur Sahin is a Netherlands-based automotive designer, known for building remarkably beautiful custom cars for enthusiastic patrons. The designer, who’s been running his own studio since 2017, has worked on cars from brands like Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ferrari, and now Rolls-Royce. You can follow his work on his website, or on his Instagram.

The post This Rolls-Royce concept mixes a bit of ‘futuristic sportiness’ into the brand’s iconic luxury DNA first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Project Fenix is an outright gorgeous supercar that pays homage to the iconic Pininfarina-designed Ferrari F50

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Mirroring the celebratory spirit of the F50, which was designed by Pininfarina to commemorate Ferrari’s 50th Anniversary, the Project Fenix marks the 15th year anniversary of Dutch automotive studio Ugur Sahin Design. However, in a year filled with overhyped and underdelivered revivals (the 2021 Countach comes swiftly to mind), Ugur Sahin’s Project Fenix highlights the best aspects of the F50 in a form that’s an incredible balance between old and new. A futuristic throwback, if you will.

Project Fenix walks the visual tightrope between a hallmark of automotive design from 1995, and a vision of the future… something that’s already challenging considering the Ferrari F50 looks stunningly future-ready even 27 years later. Automotive design Ugur Sahin stressed how important it was to retain the classic car’s core essence, while still pulling off a redesign that elicits modernity. In that pursuit, Fenix retains signature elements of the car’s design, notably its silhouette, the iconic rear wing, transparent engine bay cover, the sculpted vents on the hood, and that sharp-looking sweeping side line in black, that can even be found on the F50. Where the Fenix shines, however, is in how the car manipulates the curves and surfaces to look cleaner, tighter, and more contemporary.

Where the Fenix really shines (quite literally if I may add) is in its headlight clusters, an area that Ugur explored as his personal creative playground. The front hood remains ostensibly within Ferrari territory with slightly larger sculpted vents, but the headlights take a detour via McLaren-town (which, in unrelated news, just recently got acquired by Audi). Moving to the rear, the Fenix still retains the overall essence of the F50, but explores sleeker taillights, highlighting exactly what Ugur Sahin Design does so incredibly well – recreating classic automobiles from legendary companies, but with a fresh twist that elicits nostalgia, curiosity, and certainly a bit of an adrenaline rush.

Although Ugur Sahin Design has dabbled in one-off custom prototypes, the Project Fenix currently exists only as a concept car designed to celebrate the Dutch studio’s 15th anniversary. Ugur Sahin’s been rather vocal of being open to building custom units if there’s enough demand… something that shouldn’t be a problem for the Fenix, given exactly how stunning it looks! Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ferrari or Pininfarina commissioned a custom build of their own!

Designer: Ugur Sahin Design

The post The Project Fenix is an outright gorgeous supercar that pays homage to the iconic Pininfarina-designed Ferrari F50 first appeared on Yanko Design.

The gorgeous USD Passionata concept feels like ‘modern automotive haute couture’

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Remember the woman in the red dress from the first Matrix film? She appeared in one of Neo’s training sessions, and was captivating enough to distract the ‘chosen one’ for just a split second; enough for Morpheus to whip out a gun and point it at Neo, catching him unawares. The USD Passionata is the car-version of that woman.

Designed by Ugur Sahin, the USD Passionata embodies the classic beauty of the past along with the high precision styling of the present. A spiritual successor to the Ferrari Dino concept designed by Sahin back in 2008, the Passionata sports the classic Ferrari-style rear with the familiar circular taillights. The sides are incredibly retro-inspired too, with the bold use of curves that guide the eye and give the car its feminine quality. For that fatale-effect, however, the car comes with an Aston Martin-inspired front along with a deadly set of steely blue eyes, and finally topped off with a partially transparent hood that reveals the Passionata’s jaw-dropping V12 engine!

Designer: Ugur Sahin Design

The Alfa Romeo Nivola concept was named after the legendary Italian racing driver

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Vehicles are often named after metaphors of domination, speed, and strength. The Mustang is a wild horse, the Diablo is literally named after the devil, and the same goes for the Impala, the Charger, the Stingray, the Viper, Thunderbird… you get my flow. These metaphors are often embodied as traits within the animals the cars are named after, and it’s rare to see those traits in a single human, but Tazio Nuvolari embodied them. Perhaps one of the most passionate racing legends, Nuvolari spent most of his life on the track, and even after a crash that left him with two broken legs, decided to get back on his racing bike (tied to it, fractures and all) and win his next race. There are rare instances when humans can embody the spirit of being passionate and daring the way Nuvolari was, and the Alfa Romeo Nivola hopes to celebrate his legacy by carrying his name forward.

Often referred to by his pet-name Nivola, Tazio Nuvolari is the inspiration behind the Alfa Romeo Nivola concept. Designed by Ugur Sahin after a visit at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2018, where he witnessed the ‘best of show’ winning Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale in person, the Nivola builds on the 33 Stradale’s design, altering and modifying it to bring about the necessary traits in the car. The car, however, bases itself on Alfa Romeo’s 4C chassis, and is made to absolutely perfect production-ready detail. As Alfa Romeo announced that it plans on discontinuing the 4C in 2020, Sahin designed to Nivola to embody the 4C’s undying spirit, to show that it still has some fight left in it, and has the absolute ability to shock, awe, and dazzle.

With the inner structure of the 4C and the outer body that captures the 1967 Stradale’s curvy, retro aesthetic, the Nivola is arguably a modern classic. The car sports the iconic V-shaped grille sitting between headlights that come mounted with flush oval glass-covers. Sahin’s bodywork for the Nivola is extremely proportionate, with the curves in the right places. One would argue that it looks like the Stradale was carried forward into the next century, giving Scaglione’s original design a modern makeover. The back of the car comes slightly extended too, to create that remarkably continuous flow from the rear fender right till the end, where the car’s rear abruptly cuts off to bring you a black posterior panel with the Stradale’s circular taillights. The Nivola is truly a treat for the eyes, with a design that breathes life back into a classic exterior. Besides, it’s tailor-made for the 4C chassis to a level of detail where, if there were healthy demand, a limited number of units could actually be produced… and it does seem like quite a few people are interested in the Nivola – Sahin just delivered the first Nivola prototype to a buyer back in December 2019!

Designer: Ugur Sahin Design

The Alfa Romeo USD Barchetta is a split-cockpit, social-distancing speed demon!

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Do you ever see a car concept and just feel pain inside your heart knowing it probably won’t exist and you can never take it out for a spin? It’s a feeling I like to call ‘heart-brake’, and the Alfa Romeo USD Barchetta is giving me major heart-brake vibes…

Designed by Ugur Sahin, the USD Barchetta is a modern take on Alfa Romeo’s classics like the TZ1 and the 1981 Giulietta Barchetta with more contemporary styling that feels like a past-present-convergence. The front sports Alfa Romeo’s iconic V-shaped grille that gradually progresses into the V detail you see on the hood. Unlike the previous Barchetta models with circular headlamps, the USD Barchetta concept sports a more lean Bugatti Chiron-esque set of LED lights, sitting right above the vertical air-intakes. The LED lighting manifests on the back too, with a single strip traveling from left to right, and an F1-inspired third tail-light between the four tailpipe exhaust system.

I’m not entirely sure if Ugur Sahin designed the USD Barchetta keeping social distancing in mind, but the separated cockpits for the driver and rider seem like a pretty nice modern touch to the vehicle too!

Designer: Ugur Sahin Design