The Honda Racer – for the kid in you!

Last year, Hot Wheels celebrated its 40th anniversary by unveiling lots of new concepts at the 2007 SEMA Show in Vegas. The thing is, instead if 1:64 scale replicas from the toy maker, viewers could see completely new designs from Lotus, Chevy, Ford, Mitsubishi, Dodge and Honda. In case you missed them at SEMA, you may want to keep an eye out in August for the Lotus Concept, Mitsubishi Double Shotz, Dodge XP-07, Gangster Grin from Ford, Chevroletor (GM), and Honda Racer, along with Hot Wheels’ own HW-40 as these contraptions are going on a tour around US.

The Honda Racer is the first to be mass produced. Inspired by the “H” in Honda’s logo, the Racer has 2 seats and a paint scheme that resembles the one Honda used to have in Formula1. Equipped with a fictitious Honda V10 VTEC engine displacing (in theory) 2,0L per cylinder, the Racer’s only enemy is gravity.

Guillermo Gonzalez is probably more fortunate than his fellow designers as there were no limits to his creativity, his main concern was to fit in the orange track and to be able to do a loop.

The Honda Racer is due to fill store shelves in May.

April 23, 2008 · Filed Under Concept Cars, Honda

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Back to the roots with the Volkswagen Up!

First word about the Volkswagen Up! concept dates back from October last year. Measuring 135.8″ in length and 64.2″ in width, the VW Up! follows the trend of small, economical vehicles that started long ago with the famous Beetle.

As production seems to come along just fine, more and more details about the tiny vehicle are available. The Up! is said to have a 600cc two-cylinder turbocharged engine placed in the rear with 94MPG combined in the European cycle.

Compared with the Smart that enjoys such success in the United States, the Up! has much superior fuel economy. Moreover, it may seat up to four people within the tiny cabin and provides the possibility of removing the back seats for larger storage space.

Pricing starts from around £4,000 in developing markets and reaches £7,500 for full-option models destined for the European market and it’s just a matter of time until the tiny runabout will roam the streets.

April 21, 2008 · Filed Under Concept Cars, Volkswagen

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Audi Snook Concept

audi snook concept

The Audi Snook concept, the winner of Michelin Challenge Design Award 2008 at this year’s Detroit Auto Show was designed by Tilmann Schlootz and seems to defy all the laws of gravity. We don’t have too many details regarding this concept but we can make some speculations based on the photos. The car looks like a Segway and seems to have borrown the ideea of sphere-wheels from the movie “I, Robot”.

Tilmann Schlootz describes his project: “The Magic Egg of Columbus, or better, two billard balls standing on each other: this icon is my origin on the way of reducing the hardware demands of physical mobility to the minimum.

One point touching the ground, the inverse pendulum in motion. Agility through instability, controlled by artificial intelligence - that is my formal issue.”

The multi-directional engine consisted of a sphere-wheel, enables the driver to navigate and steer the auto-stabilized cain in every direction. This sounds like new driving experiences such as : new maneuvers, fun driving and satisfaction of the need for more urban mobility.

April 17, 2008 · Filed Under Audi, Concept Cars

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