Automotive Lighting

Sweet sixteen

Automotive Lighting

SEPTEMBER 2015

Bugatti’s 8.0-litre 16-cylinder monster breaks cover

ISSUE 76

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EditorialGoAuto NewsroomPO Box 18Sandringham VIC 3191(03) 9598 6477 goautomag@goautomedia.net

PublisherJohn Mellor

ProductionLuc BrittenWilliam Vicente

ContributorsTim NicholsonDaniel GardnerTim RobsonRon HammertonTerry MartinTung NguyenByron Mathioudakis

Advertising enquiriesSally Mellor(03) 9598 6477 0425 700 904sally@goautomedia.net

76 SEPT2015

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Electro hausPorsche unveils Tesla-troubling electro-only IAA concept

Range extenderShape shifting body boosts Merc Concept IAA showcar’s reach

Key GripzNissan takes cover off future crossovers

Gran designsBugatti’s Vision Gran Turismo concept hints at new hypercar styling

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PORSCHE MISSION E

Electro hausPorsche unveils Tesla-troubling electro-only IAA concept

By STUART MARTIN and TIM ROBSON

PORSCHE has fired back at the electric supercar brigade with its Mission E concept that features four doors, four-

wheel drive, four-wheel steering and pumps out more than 400 kilowatts

Given its four-door body style, the Mission E

– revealed at the Frankfurt motor show – could point to a possible all-electric next-generation Panamera, and it is no doubt designed to give Tesla’s Model S P85D some opposition.

The first all-electric four-seat sportscar in the brand’s history also boasts a first in its use of an 800-volt drive system that generates 440kW of power and offers an electric driving

range of more than 500km.A sprint time in the realm of the current

911 Turbo – “under 3.5 seconds” – as well as a fast-charge to 80 per cent capacity in about 15 minutes are among the other claims for the concept.

Porsche’s introduction of an 800-volt system ensures a single full-charge range of 500km

but up to an extra 400km from a 15-minute quick charge, as well as having the ability for inductive-loop charging.

The latest lithium-ion battery system has been mounted low and throughout the floorpan between the front and rear axles, delivering even weight balance and a low centre of gravity.

The impetus comes from two permanent

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magnet synchronous motors taken from the Le Mans 919 hybrid, which can recover energy as well as teaming up to produce 440kW, enough to hit 200km/h in less than 12 seconds.

The on-demand all-wheel-drive system offers torque vectoring to automatically distributes torque to the individual wheels as required.

According to Porsche, all that combines for a

Nurburgring Nordschleife lap time of less than eight minutes, which seems pessimistic given the 6:57s lap in its 918 Spyder and low seven-minute laps for many of its Porsche siblings.

Built from a mix of aluminium, steel and carbon-fibre reinforced polymer, the Mission E sits low (just 1300mm) on carbon wheels – 21 inches up the front and 22-inch wheels at the rear.

Subtle aerodynamics abound, with air inlets and outlets adorning all of the car’s surfaces, giving the Mission E improved airflow and keeping lift to a minimum.

Four individual racing bucket seats keep all occupants well located during “dynamic driving” and cabin space benefits from the absence of a transmission tunnel.

A camera-based eye-tracking system detects where the driver is looking, which gives them (with the use of steering wheel mounted buttons) the ability to select menus and functions by looking at them.

The display also has the ability to follow the seat position and body attitude of the driver – Porsche says it’s called the “parallax effect”

Smooth move: Inside Porsche’s striking Mission E concept is a 3D display of round instruments that “move” with the driver.

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– and the 3D display of the round instruments “move” with the driver.

The Mission E also boasts a holographic display that extends far into the passenger side, allowing front occupants to use the integrated apps to control the car’s main cabin functions by the use of gestures – grasping to select and pulling to control.

The aero package does not have to accommodate for exterior mirrors, where instead the “virtual” exterior mirrors (located on the lower corners of the windscreen) display images from the exterior cameras.

Meanwhile, Porsche’s local arm says the Mission-E is more than just a concept.

“The local view is consistent with the global view,” Porsche Australia head of corporate communications Paul Ellis told GoAuto. “This isn’t fanciful stuff; this isn’t dreamworks. This is pioneering technology, which will make it into a Porsche road car.

“It’s not a novelty, it’s serious and we’ve learned a lot from the (Le Mans-winning) 919 hybrid race car and the 918 Spyder, and

a lot of that electrification intellect has come through our cars.

“It’s a genuine piece of engineering that will come to the road, for sure.”

The petrol-electric 918 Spyder, now out of production, sold for more than $2 million apiece, and while several prominent Australians – including former F1 driver Mark Webber – have purchased examples, it cannot be locally registered.

Porsche Australia managing director Sam Curtis told GoAuto that Porsche’s traditional sportscar customer base are accepting of the company’s push for a hybridised performance future.

“I think at the end of the day, if it delivers on all the brand promises, which I think this car will, clearly it will be accepted,” he said. “Somewhat challenging, obviously, for our audience and our customer base, but I think we’ve moved on from that and … it’s a sign of what’s to come and I think it’s just understood that we’ve obviously stripped our emission controls and regulations. It’s the way of the world.”

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Bugatti’s Vision Gran Turismo concept hints at new hypercar styling

Gran designsBUGATTI VISION GRAN TURISMO

By TIM ROBSON

BUGATTI continues to tease out its plans for its Veyron replacement, with the top-end brand showing off a wild

concept car that’s been created for Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo gaming series at this

month’s Frankfurt motor show.Known as the Vision Gran Turismo, the

wildly bewinged supercar will be rolled out to Sony video game players before the end of 2015.

Senior staff from Bugatti’s design and

engineering teams contributed to the Vision Gran Turismo project, in order to produce what the company calls a “thoroughbred Bugatti for the virtual race track”.

“We wanted to create a project as realistic as possible for our fans, and put a real Bugatti

in the virtual world of the PlayStation video game franchise,” explained Bugatti’s head of exterior design for production development, Frank Heyl.

“Every design characteristic is defined by its function. Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo is the

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perfect symbiosis of engineering and aesthetics.”

Designers have included signature Bugatti styling themes, including the horseshoe front grille, the centre fin which is derived from the 1936 Type 57 Atlantic, with one on the wing and on the rear side panels and the side profile features the famous Bugatti line.

The interior, which picks up the two-tone theme of the exterior, features a screen housed on the steering column beaming images from a trio of

cameras mounted on the exterior, while another screen sits on the steering wheel itself and

displays vehicle information. Bugatti is close to revealing

the Veyron’s replacement, believed to be known as the Chiron, to the public, with prospective clients having reportedly already seen – and ordered – the car at the brand’s Molsheim facility in France.

An official launch is anticipated for next year’s Geneva motor show.

Bugatti Automobiles president Wolfgang

Durheimer said the out-there concept is the next step in the company’s shift from the now discontinued Veyron to its replacement, and added that the Vision Gran Turismo provides fans with a glimpse of

future Bugatti design. “Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo

is the first stage on a new journey

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that Bugatti is embarking on following the successful completion of its Veyron chapter, and which will culminate in the unveiling of the next Bugatti super sportscar in the not too distant future,” he said.

“This project showcases Bugatti’s new design language, which we have developed to celebrate this new chapter in our company history.

“Bugatti will remain clearly positioned in the future as a brand with a strong profile. We’re building the world’s fastest, most exclusive, most luxurious and most powerful production super sportscar.”

The Chiron’s mechanical package will represent a significant upgrade of the Veyron’s already impressive powertrain, but will likely be more fuel-efficient.

The quad–turbo 8.0-litre W16 engine configuration is expected to be retained, but it will be teamed with cylinder deactivation technology and electrically controlled turbochargers in an effort to achieve a fuel-

efficiency figure of 16.5 litres per 100 kilometres.

Likewise, the Veyron’s all-wheel-drive layout and seven-speed DSG gearbox is likely to make its way into the Chiron, while hybrid assistance – possibly via a flywheel-mounted electric motor – is also expected to make an appearance.

Power figures are set to rise over those of the already impressive Veyron, with outputs of 1100kW and 1500Nm expected. A target 0-100km/h time of 2.3 seconds is projected, along with a top speed of more than 460km/h.

This extreme technology will come at a price, of course, with several outlets reporting a projected base price of $3.5 million for the Chiron. This will make it by far the most expensive vehicle ever built by Volkswagen Group.

As with the Veyron, the Chiron is unlikely to be able to be registered in Australia.

By TIM NICHOLSON

MERCEDES-BENZ has ripped the covers off a futuristic ‘Concept IAA’ four-door coupe at the

Frankfurt show, previewing technology that will eventually surface in next-generation models, most likely the next E-Class.

While the German luxury car-maker has not officially announced which future model the Concept IAA previews, the company said in a statement that some of the technology and the interior “offers a foretaste of the business saloon of the near future”.

The next production sedan set to be revealed

by Mercedes is the new-generation E-Class that will probably surface later this year or early in 2016, and GoAuto understands the cabin of the concept offers an early look at the all-important new E-Class.

Some publications are reporting that the exterior design previews a four-door version

of the recently launched Mercedes-AMG GT coupe, but company sources have told us that it is more likely to preview a future sedan rather than a sportscar.

The hi-tech Concept IAA – which is an acronym for ‘Intelligent Aerodynamic Automobile’ rather than the more familiar ‘Internationale Automobil-

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MERCEDES-BENZ CONCEPT IAA

Range extenderShape shifting body boosts Merc

Concept IAA showcar’s reach

10 /15Automotive Lighting

Ausstellung’ (International Motor Show) – features “world-beating” aerodynamics and a slippery 0.19Cd drag coefficient, according to Mercedes, and it can even physically transform when driving.

If the driver hits 80km/h, or hits a button, Mercedes says the concept “performs a fascinating transformation” to further improve the aerodynamics.

Eight segments extend at the rear, increasing the length by up to 390mm, while flaps in the front bumper extend by up to 25mm forward and 20mm back for better airflow around the wheelarches. The front bumper shifts back towards the rear by 60mm for better underbody airflow and the cupping of the ‘active rims’ drop from 55mm to zero.

Mercedes says the aerodynamic elements were developed in about one million CPU hours, which roughly equals the work involved in developing a production model.

The Concept IAA introduces ‘vehicle-to-X’ technology for communication from the vehicle to other vehicles, infrastructure and other sources of data, which can potentially aid in avoiding obstacles or crashes.

The long, sleek coupe concept is 5040mm long when not in aerodynamic mode, 1995mm wide, 1305mm high and rests on a 2975mm wheelbase. These dimensions place it somewhere

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between a CLS-Class four-door coupe and an S-Class sedan.

Mercedes says it “interprets classic sportscar proportions in a modern vein”, with the long bonnet leading to the front end that carries a “shark-nose” profile, a setback compact greenhouse and unusual sportscar-like cut-off tail end.

Inside, the company says that the concept follows the design line of the S-Class sedan and coupe, but adds a bright white and contrasting blue theme with flowing lines and the use of aluminium and cut glass.

The steering wheel features touch-based functions such as Optical Finger Navigation buttons that are embedded in the clusters for gesture control, allowing users to scroll through menus. There is an OFN button on the left of the display and one on the right to better encourage the adoption of Benz’s “hands on the wheel,

eyes on the road” operating philosophy.The concept uses a petrol-electric hybrid

powertrain producing 205kW and capable of a 250km/h top speed. In aerodynamic mode the concept has an electric-only range of 66km and emits 28g/km of CO2, while in regular or ‘design’ mode the range drops to 62km and CO2 emissions increase to 31g/km.

Daimler board member responsible for group research and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars development Thomas Weber said the Concept IAA proves that interesting design and functionality can co-exist.

“Fascinating and technically sophisticated cars form the core of Mercedes-Benz,” he said. “The ‘Concept IAA’ applies intelligent innovations to resolve the conflicting aims of functionality and aesthetics and shows that we still have plenty of ideas on how to achieve further improvements in efficiency.”

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Key GripzNissan takes cover off future crossovers

NISSAN GRIPZ

By STUART MARTIN

NISSAN has unveiled its Gripz compact crossover concept at the Frankfurt show, which harks back to

its rallying days but with an electric drivetrain.The Gripz covers a similar amount of road

to the current Juke, while the styling cues that bear a strong resemblance to the Z sportscars had some media suggesting the high-riding sports concept was a 370Z replacement.

According to Nissan, the Gripz is its take on next-generation crossover design and the

concept should be seen as a design statement rather than a replacement for an existing model.

Nissan calls the look of the Gripz (which wears design cues from the 370Z among others) ‘emotional geometry’ design language,

bearing some similarities to the Sway concept from this year's Geneva motor show, while pointing to design and engineering possibilities of a future compact crossover.

Nissan senior vice president and chief creative officer Shiro Nakamura said the

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company, which he believes pioneered the compact crossover segment and dominates it with Qashqai and Juke, was showing its take on the segment’s future.

“While the Nissan Gripz Concept is not seen as a direct replacement for either of those two iconic vehicles, it does show the extremes to which the compact crossover can be pushed,” he said.

Nissan is claiming the Gripz has the abilities and practical nature of a traditional compact crossover with the excitement and performance of a sportscar, and is influenced by its desert rally cars and pedal-powered racers.

The company released a video with the details on its crossover concept, which showed the sports-coupe-bodied crossover tearing through vacant city streets as they were disrupted by jungle growth – accompanied by the tagline “pushing the city limits into the wild”.

Also part of the presentation was imagery of the brand’s Safari Rally-

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Retro active: The matte-black bonnet and orange body colour references the Safari Rally-winning jacked-up 240Zs from the 1970s

winning 240Z, which was beefed up and raised as part of Nissan’s off-road racing efforts in the 1970s; the 240Zs of yesteryear had a matte-black finish for the bonnet and boot, with a red-orange body colour.

The similarly coloured Nissan concept is powered using 'Pure Drive e-Power’, an efficient petrol engine used to power the electric motor from the Nissan Leaf, resulting in outputs of 80kW and 254Nm.

A collaboration between Nissan’s Design Europe staff in London (who penned the Juke and Qashqai) and the Nissan Global Design Centre in Japan, the concept features a carbon frame over which body panels are placed, that Nissan likened to armoured cladding.

The four-seater’s cabin continues the lightweight, bare-bones carbon theme, dwelling somewhere between a Tour De France bicycle and the stripped-out rally cars.

The concept has four doors – dihedral front doors that swing out and up and rear-hinged half-doors for the rear occupants, with access unimpeded thanks to the lack of a B-pillar.

Among the car’s quirks are forward-facing cameras mounted within the headlights, allowing every journey to be recorded in a manner similar to how helmet cameras or GoPros are used by rally drivers.

The Gripz adds the abilities to “live stream” the journey, with Nissan boasting that “special trips along great roads can be beamed around the world, allowing friends to follow the car's progress on their computer, tablet or smart phone in real time,” although there’s no mention of law enforcement viewing.

The high-riding sports crossover rides on three-spoke 22-inch wheels, again taking inspiration from racing bicycles, wrapped in thin high-pressure Bridgestone tyres.