More Than Meets The Eye: Concept Cars Unveiled

Car Concept

corvette-stingray How did you like the new Bumblebee in the Transformers movie? I would really really have loved to see a Beetle as Bumblebee – as countless others were hoping, I am sure – but I cannot deny that the Camaro that was the new Bumblebee was beautiful. If you liked that car, wait till you see the new concepts that Chevrolet is unveiling.

These concepts are part of the sequel to the first Transformers movie. Dubbed “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” new autobots are going to be featured. Motor Authority has this story:

Making their debuts at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show are Bumblebee, a Camaro-based Autobot, Sideswipe (Corvette Stingray Concept) and Skids/Mudflap (Chevy Beat concept).

The Corvette Stingray concept is at this point solely a design exercise, not foreshadowing a production vehicle, though talk of the upcoming C7 Corvette has been circulating for some time. The Beat concept filling the role of the twin Skids and Mudflap robots is already headed to production as the 2011 Chevy Spark. The Chevrolet Volt will also be joining the cast as Jolt.

The overall idea of the Stingray Concept was to incorporate past design cues in a fully futuristic shape. Speaking specifically about the Corvette concept, Ed Welburn, vice president of GM Global Design, said, “By giving my creative team the freedom to design no-holds-barred vision concepts, it helps them push boundaries and look at projects from different perspectives.”

All I can say is that the Stingray concept is sexy. I cannot wait to see the new movie and be amazed at the cars yet again.

Written by Marcel on February 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Hybrid to Full Electric – The Transition is in Sight

Auto Enthusiasts, Automotive Technologies, Car Concept, City Driving, News, biofuel, Full Electrics, Hybrids, Hydrogen cars, LNG Cars

biofuel We’ve all heard the bad rap biofuels has gotten with the increased pollution and macro-economic impact it has on society but you’ve gotta’ give credit for these engineers who have managed to come up with alternatives to our increasingly oil dependent economies in so short a time. The problem wasn’t with the fuel itself for it fulfilled all pre-set criteria for a fuel that burned with less emissions than oil-based fuel products. As it turns out, it takes more energy to produce a liter of biofuel that off-sets the gains of the said alternative. The foray of engineers into the hybrid arena was merely to fill in the gap till fully electric systems became more feasible.
Fuel cell technology today, has resulted in some of the coolest cars around. From electric compacts that run on hydrogen or compressed natural gas that has similar abilities as bio fuels used in conjunction with better fuel cell technologies and reactors they all make for a better transition from an oil-based economy to a hydrogen or LNG-based one. The benefits of these alternative fueled cars is so much that research has been pushed to the extent of breakthroughs being put into prototypes as soon as they are discovered making for some really cool cars. With some manufacturers fielding test fleets to iron out the kinks in the system, they should have a working infrastructure by 2010 when most manufacturers schedule the release of their versions of the electric vehicles to take up the slack where bio-fueled vehicles left off.