GM Just Can’t Wait to Unwrap Its Concepts
The auto show season will soon be upon us, and the time of year when major manufacturers show their concept cars for the coming season is getting earlier and earlier.
The companies used to wait for the major auto shows themselves--Los Angeles and Detroit in January, Chicago in February and New York in April--to unveil their concepts, which showcase design hints, powertrains and technology that could be applied to future production vehicles.
But General Motors Corp. beat everyone to the punch this month, pulling the wraps off the class of ’01.
“Exposure to the media and the public is wonderful feedback,” said GM Vice President of Design Wayne Cherry. “When we show what we’re actually working on, it motivates the design teams and brings the development process to a whole new level.”
Traditionally, concept cars are not slated for production. But GM has been taking its concepts much more seriously in the last couple of years, and of the nine concepts it unveiled a year ago, it has said it will produce six. GM already has announced that it will make the Chevrolet SSR, a hot-rod-styled pickup truck, in a version scarcely changed from the concept.
This year, GM has mapped out a decidedly youthful orientation.
“We want to appeal to younger, more diverse, more active, female, higher-educated, more affluent and technologically savvy consumers,” said Ed Welburn, executive director of GM’s Corporate Brand Character Center.
Said Cherry: “We want to appeal to young people--to create changes they find exciting and the kinds of vehicles they want to be seen in.”
GM’s target audience can be quite young, indeed: Cherry hopes these cars reach so-called echo boomers aged 6 to 23, because “we know that people form their images about vehicles they like well before they’re able to buy one.”
Some of the engines and interiors for the concepts are still on the drawing board, but others are almost ready for the words every designer and engineer fervently hopes to hear: “Do it.”
You can bet that several of the concepts shown here will see production in versions close to what GM is showing. All of the vehicles will be officially unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, except where noted.
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Chevrolet Borrego. The Borrego--its name refers to a mountain sheep that “can climb anything”--is a crossover vehicle inspired by rally races in Baja California.
The car-truck concept is built on the Subaru Legacy platform--including its 2.0-liter, horizontally opposed, four-cylinder engine (turbocharged to 250 horsepower) and compact all-wheel-drive system--but is topped off with a 6-foot pickup bed.
GM took a 20% stake in Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries this year and has said that the partners were jointly developing a small truck-like product for Chevy.
“This is it,” said Frank Saucedo, director of GM’s Los Angeles design studio in North Hollywood. “It’s a complete compact package with the attributes of a sport-utility truck but the emotions of a coupe.”
The Borrego’s bulkhead behind the front seats rises and slides back, making room for two more passengers and shrinking the pickup bed to 3 feet. The concept also boasts an air compressor with a hose that can be used to inflate outdoor equipment, blow dust out of the interior or serve as a shower when hooked up to a water tank.
The vehicle, aimed at the twentysomething market, will premiere at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show in January and most likely hit showrooms before long.
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Oldsmobile O4. This sporty convertible is the latest iteration of what Cherry calls Olds’ “course correction--to attract someone who might be an import buyer.”
The O4 is built on a platform borrowed from Opel, including the 1.8-liter, 115-horsepower engine. Its styling is a collaboration of Oldsmobile’s Detroit studio and Bertone Design of Turin, Italy.
Jeff Perkins, Oldsmobile’s brand character chief designer, described the O4 as “an open-air car but with a four-seasons top configuration that seats four people.”
The all-seasons top amounts to twin panels that snap off to be stowed behind the rear seats. The rear window also retracts into the space behind the rear seats, leaving a stylized, swept-forward airfoil in place, which also can be stowed.
There are prominent fender flares, and the thin, slit-like headlamps are only 1.4 inches high and use fiber optics and projector beam technology to shine brighter than conventional lamps.
Inside, designers were inspired by the growing numbers of personal digital assistants to craft a 10-button “information ring” around the steering column that can be reconfigured to show various information: The speedometer will always be there, but it can be accompanied by a tachometer, climate-control settings, audio controls or other gauges. There is also an integrated port for a PDA and for a Sony Memory Stick that can hold digitized music, maps or mirror and seating settings for the driver and a passenger.
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Buick Bengal. This concept is a swooping, front-wheel-drive roadster with lots of curves, an oversized chrome grille, an endless hood and huge 20-inch wheels.
“We’ve moved the front wheels way forward, which gives the Bengal an elegant aspect,” said David Lyon, Buick’s brand character chief designer.
The 3.4-liter, 250-horsepower V-6 engine is transversely mounted, and the six-speed automatic transmission is mounted in front of it instead of behind. The unusual drive train results in a more rearward center of gravity that GM says gives the car terrific handling on curves.
A retractable tonneau cover converts the two-seat Bengal to a four-seater. Rear-seat access is facilitated by a third door on the driver’s side.
On the inside, Buick has taken the unusual step of moving all instrument panel dials to a reconfigurable heads-up color display projected on the windshield and turning the entire dashboard into one large flat-panel speaker.
It’s doubtful that any laws would allow gauges such as the speedometer to be removed from the dashboard, but one of the purposes of concept cars is to allow designers to be whimsical.
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Pontiac REV. “This one’s a screamer,” said Phil Zak, Pontiac’s brand character chief designer. The REV reflects the “Pontiac athletic house style--for young, performance-minded consumers.”
So here’s another Pontiac aimed squarely at the youth market following last season’s Piranha concept two-seater and the Aztek minivan-SUV that recently went on sale. But GM has thought out the REV pretty well and it appears to be ready for the showroom, so expect it or something close to it on the market before long.
Under the hood is a transversely mounted 3.0-liter, 245-horsepower, supercharged V-6 engine. The REV (from “revolution in sports cars,” Zak said) sports all-wheel drive, big wheels (19 inches in front, 20 in back) and an on-the-fly adjustable suspension that can raise or lower the car by 2 inches at the touch of a button. The rear doors are sliding; out back is a clamshell deck where the taillight area slides down as the lift gate rises.
Inside, there is extensive use of rubber so the interior can be easily washed, and the carbon-fiber seats reduce weight and keep seats small, increasing overall passenger space. Headlights are side-mounted under the hood and bounce off mirrors to project from the car, allowing them to “steer” with the wheels as they turn.
The REV will premiere at the Chicago Auto Show in February.
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GMC Terracross. Executives say the upscale GMC truck division is an “aspirational” brand among younger buyers. With that in mind, the auto maker has developed a truck that is scaled down from last season’s hulking Terradyne concept pickup, with which it shares some looks and features.
“Young consumers want enough space but something that’s not too big--something that’s practical, affordable and flexible,” said GMC’s brand character chief designer, Carl Zipfel.
The resulting Terracross is a five-passenger crossover pickup-SUV--which also vaguely resembles a hearse, which some youthful drivers will probably dig. The concept offers all-wheel drive and a 3.4-liter, 185-horsepower, V-6 engine.
Flexibility is, indeed, the Terracross’ watchword, in the guise of a three-part sliding glass roof that can be rearranged to turn the vehicle into a convertible, a pickup or an enclosed SUV.
The squared-off wheel wells and high ground clearance make for a techno-robotic look. The rear doors glide back--evidently a popular feature in this year’s crop of GM concepts--and there is a mid-gate with a retractable rear window that can close off the passenger compartment from the exposed rear cargo box.
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Cadillac Vizon. This concept, pronounced vi-zahn, is yet another crossover, this time part-wagon and part-SUV, in a luxury package. In a nomenclature that’s already starting to grow old, Caddy calls the Vizon a “luxury-activity vehicle.” Tom Kearns, the brand character chief designer, puts it somewhere between an Audi Allroad wagon and BMW’s X5 (which Beemer calls a “sports-activity vehicle”).
The Vizon’s sculpted looks and almost unrealistically thin, vertical headlights are reminiscent of Cadillac’s last two concepts: the Evoq roadster (now scheduled for production) and the four-door Imaj. The four-door Vizon is powered by Cadillac’s muscular 4.2-liter, 300-horsepower, Northstar V-8 engine.
When the engine starts up, gills open on the car’s sides and the two-piece sunroof slides back for open-car motoring. Adjustable suspension allows for adapting to different road environments, and adaptive cruise control keeps the vehicle from crunching into a car ahead of it on the highway.
The interior takes inspiration from nonautomotive design: “clean and simple but still inviting,” Kearns said. The driver’s reconfigurable instrument panel is influenced by Bulgari luxury watches, and the rest of the interior is meant to recall contemporary home and furniture design. The center console runs the length of the car’s interior and supposedly can hold a pair of skis or other “activity cargo” (Cartier-designed walking sticks, perhaps?). The Vizon incorporates Cadillac’s night-vision system now available in the DeVille, and a rearview video system to see what’s in back.
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Hummer H2 SUT. Now that it has exclusive retailing rights to Hummer, built by AM General in Indiana, GM wants to leverage it as a premium brand. “It’s a recognizable brand around the world, up there with Coca-Cola and Nike,” said Hummer Design Director Terry Henline.
GM has already come up with the H2 SUV, a boxy and unmistakable younger brother to the H1 of U.S. military fame. The H2 SUV is coming in 2002 as an ’03 model. Now comes the concept H2 SUT--you guessed it, a “sport-utility truck”--which is essentially an H2 with a pickup bed.
Although GM hasn’t committed to producing it, the Hummer SUT seems a sure bet, given the current or already announced SUVs that Ford and GM have chopped off in the rear to create a pickup bed.
The H2 SUT builds on Hummer’s go-anywhere, do-anything reputation with an open cargo bed in back and a folding rear bulkhead, with a rear window that recedes into it to adapt to different-shaped loads.
With Hummer’s characteristically long wheelbase and wide stance, the SUT exudes brawn, as does the 6.0-liter, 250-horsepower Vortec V-8 engine. Speaking of size, the sunroof is so big--GM’s largest ever--that it’s been dubbed a “skyroof.”
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Terril Yue Jones is The Times’ Detroit bureau chief. He can be reached at t.jones@latimes.com.
