Showing posts with label VW Concepts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VW Concepts. Show all posts

Monday, 11 July 2011

Paging David Hasselhoff: Sebastian Toddenroth’s High-Tech VW Schwimmwagen


Remember in Baywatch, how the cast used to tool around in canary yellow cute utes with jet skis strapped to their trays? Did you ever wonder why they didn’t just eliminate the middleman and employ WWII-era Schwimmwagens?

German industrial designer Sebastian Toddenroth certainly toyed around with the idea and the result is the Volkswagen Rescue Rover concept you see pictured here.

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Saturday, 4 June 2011

A Photo Tour of the VW Group’s 2011 Wörthersee Festival with 150 Images


For the past thirty year, tens of thousands of enthusiasts of Volkswagen Group cars assemble on the shores of Lake Worthersee in Austria to participate in the largest festival of its kind in the world. Over the years, Volkswagen and the other brands of the German group including Audi, Seat and Skoda, have used the show to unveil special concepts, new models and studies that hint at future production versions or accessories.

At this year’s event (June 1 to 4, 2011), the VW Group prepared several vehicles for the festival including the production VW Golf GTI 35 Edition with 235HP, the VW Golf Cabriolet GTI and R concepts, the wild 503HP Audi A1 Clubsport Quattro study, and the Skoda Fabia RS 2000 Convertible prototype. As you may have noticed, the company didn’t show much love for its Seat brand which was left to display its current lineup.

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Friday, 3 June 2011

Yuhan Zhang’s Aqua is the Personal VW Hovercraft Concept of Tomorrow


Before budget airlines and the Channel Tunnel, the faster way to get from Britain to France was by hovercraft. The largest of these was the SNR4, a 300-ton behemoth capable of carrying 380 passengers and 40 cars at a speed of 70 mph (113 km/h). In the 1950s and ‘60s, magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics were predicting a future where we’d all be cruising around in affordable, personal hovercrafts. Sadly, it was not to be.

Now, some 11 years after the last SNR4 was retired, 21-year-old industrial design graduate Yuhan Zhang has resurrected the personal hovercraft in the form of her Volkswagen Aqua study.

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VW Golf GTI Cabriolet Concept Live from Wörthersee. Should it be Built?


Yesterday, we brought you the first images of Volkswagen’s Golf GTI Cabriolet study but today we have live photos from the car’s world premiere at the Wörthersee meeting in Austria along with official information on the concept.

The hotted-up convertible is based on the standard Golf GTI with power coming from the same 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine delivering 210-horsepower and 280 Nm (207-lbs/ft) of peak torque at 1.800 rpm.

Volkswagen says the open-air model’s performance matches that of the closed-top GTI with a 0-100km/h (62mph) sprint time of 7 seconds and a top speed of around 240km/h (149 mph).

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Thursday, 2 June 2011

Volkswagen Unwraps Two More Golf R Concepts at Wörthersee Tour


If there’s one thing die-hard Volkswagen fans visiting this week’s annual Wörthersee Tour in Austria aren’t going to complain about, is the lack of Golf concepts. We have already shown you the Golf GTI Cabriolet and Golf R Cabriolet and now we bring you two more studies based on the flagship Golf R hatchback. The two Golf R Color concepts were first shown at the Geneva Salon this past March and were created to demonstrate the numerous customization possibilities. Read more »

Volkswagen Brings Golf GTI Cabriolet Study as well to Wörthersee Meet


And the news just keeps dropping in from the largest annual GTI Meet in the world at lake Wörthersee in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. Aside from the 270-horsepower strong Golf R Cabriolet concept that we told you about earlier today, Volkswagen also brought along a GTI study of the recently launched drop-top model.

We’re still short on information as Volkswagen has not yet published any details, but it’s safe to say that the Golf GTI Convertible is powered by either the standard Golf GTI hatchback’s 210HP 2.0-liter TFSI or the Golf GTI 35th Anniversary Edition’s 235HP 2.0-liter turbocharged unit sourced from the Golf R. Obviously power is transferred to the front wheels either through a six-speed manual gearbox or VW’s DSG transmission. The car also appears to be riding on a lowered suspension.

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Volkswagen Debuts Golf R Cabriolet Study with 270-Horses at Wörthersee


This year’s Wörthersee meet in Austria is turning out to be quite an event for the Germans with the Volkswagen Group brands churning out one concept after the other. Following the debut of the Skoda Fabia RS 2000 Convertible, the German group pulled the veils off the Golf R Cabriolet study.

Using the recently introduced new Golf Cabriolet as a base, the designers and engineers of the Volkswagen R GmbH division built a convertible version of the gutsy Golf R hatchback.

Just like its closed top counterpart, the soft-top Golf R Cabriolet is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine putting out 270-horses and 350Nm (258.2 lb-ft) of peak torque from a low 2,500 rpm. The standard sprint to 100km/h (62mph) from standstill comes in less than 6.0 seconds while top speed is limited at 250km/h (155mph).

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Thursday, 26 May 2011

By the People, for the People: Volkswagen Asks China to Help it Design a New Model


Here’s an idea: why not simply ask the public what they want in a car? Focus groups are one thing, but Volkswagen is taking this concept to extremes with its newly launched People’s Car Project. The ostensible goal of the project is to solicit advice from some of China’s 450 million internet users; advise that will shape a new model for the Chinese domestic market.

Dubbed “mass manufacturing” by Volkswagen, the Orwellian-sounding project will run for one year and gather Chinese consumers’ input in the form of text, images and film through the Zaoche website. There will also be competitions where users can vote for their favourite designs, and prizes will be handed out to the best. If proven successful, the same idea could be implemented in other regions as well.

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Friday, 6 May 2011

It Came from Kyrgyzstan: Steel Drake’s Volkswagen Concept Sports Car


Imagine for a second that, in the very near future, Audi is facelifting the TT to look more like its big brother R8. Then, halfway through the project, Audi cans it and hands over all its sketches and prototyping model to Volkswagen which then decides to put the two-door coupe into production.

Kyrgyzstanian graphic designer “Steel Drake” has created something very much fitting with this scenario in the form of his Volkswagen Concept Sports Car. Looking like a scaled-down, front engined Audi R8, Steel Drake’s Concept Sports is a simple-yet-sleek design let down only by some questionable design choices.

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Volkswagen Reveals Polo R WRC Racer with 300HP [Video]


After months of rumors and whispers, Volkswagen officially announced that it will enter a factory team to the World Rally Championship starting with the 2013 season. The announcement was made in Italy, where journalists had the chance to take a first look at the car VW will throw in the competition, the 300HP Polo R WRC, shown here as a prototype. Read more »

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Geneva 2011: Volkswagen's Bulli Microbus Concept in the Flesh


It has been ten long years since the last modern adaptation of the iconic Volkswagen T1. The Microbus concept captivated audiences in 2001 with its modern and evolved design that brought the famed hippie-cruiser into the 21st century. The new Bulli concept aims to bring back the sense of freedom and "free-love" in a more compact and environmentally conscious form.

Images of the Bulli have already been released yet there was still much anticipation for the official reveal from show-goers and Microbus fans alike. The new study is an pure electric vehicle that focuses on practicality and simplicity.

The interior is a delightful blend of VW's bauhaus, modern simplistic design and practicality. The 3x3 seating allows for a few of the drivers most personal friends to join in on a theoretical 300 km (185 mile) road trip before having to recharge. The Bulli's practicality doesn't stop there, the seats can retract to form a bed turning the mircobus into a little camper.

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Tuesday, 14 December 2010

German Take on English Tradition: Volkswagen's All-Electric London Taxi Concept


Over the decades, the London Taxi has become a British icon, just like the double-decker bus or the red telephone booth. However, this might change in the future, as stricter emissions regulations could threaten the aging diesel cabs. Volkswagen’s EV Taxi Concept, which is based on the forthcoming Up! supermini, could offer a solution to this problem, should it ever make it into production.

Motivated by a 115 hp (86 kW) electric motor that draws energy from a set of lithium-ion batteries, the Taxi Concept can reach a top speed of 74 mph (121 km/h) and has driving range of 186 miles (300 km). According to the German automaker, an 80 per cent charge of the batteries takes approximately one hour to complete.

It’s clear that, performance-wise, the EV is more than suited for taxi duty, but Volkswagen didn’t stop there. Designing a body with minimal overhangs, the automaker was able to create a roomy cabin, albeit for only two passengers at the back along with their luggage. Still, that’s pretty impressive if we take into consideration that the concept measures just 3.7 meters (146 inches) in length.

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Monday, 6 December 2010

Nostalgic Styling Take on 2015 Volkswagen Transporter


Even though the current day Volkswagen Transporter is a descendant of the famous Beetle-derived Type 2 vans, it has never managed to enjoy the same level of popularity among enthusiasts as its predecessors did. One of the reasons why the past two generations of the Transporter (T4 and T5) never caught on as much as VW would have liked, could be that their styling is completely forgettable.

Eduardo Oliveira, a Brazilian designer who you may remember from the 2012 New Beetle study, has come up with a retro styled proposal to fix this issue for the Transporter's successor. Presented here in a variety of models, the conceptual Transporter is inspired by the famous T1 and T2 VW vans. Granted, the renderings need some polishing up but the idea is there. Hit the break for the full photo gallery.

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Saturday, 13 November 2010

Volkswagen to offer Media Test Drives of All-Electric Golf Blue-e-motion at LA Auto Show


At next week's Los Angeles Auto Show, Volkswagen will offer U.S. media representatives the chance to drive the all-electric Golf blue-e-motion. Based on the five-door version of the German hatch, the Golf blue-e-motion has a 115 hp (85 kW) electric motor, powered by a 26.5 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, and a driving range of up to 150 km (93 miles).

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Friday, 5 November 2010

VW Teases Jetta R with 3.6L V6-Powered, All-Wheel-Drive Prototype


Volkswagen's new 2011 Jetta has just landed on European shores, but Germans already have new plans for it. During the European press launch, the media got a taste of the Jetta R with a special prototype fitted with a 3.6-liter V6 engine, six-speed DSG transmission and Volkswagen's 4Motion all-wheel drive system.

As you can see in the pictures, the V6 prototype's body has not been altered yet. Only the bigger wheels and four-tail pipes at the back signal that there's something going on here.

Should it make into production, you can rest assured that the R division will dress-up the Jetta with a body kit, probably featuring more aggressive spoilers, lowered side sills and other R goodies, plus interior appointments. We reckon racing seats, sportier steering wheels and pedals are safe bets.

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