Chevrolet WTCC Ultra Concept
Motoring Channel Staff - 29/Sep/2006
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Chevrolet WTCC Ultra Concept
The dynamically styled WTCC Ultra Concept was
penned by 25-year old Ewan Kingsbury, a graduate
of Coventry
University in England and now working
for GM's Australian styling
department at Holden
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Paris, France —
Chevrolet's increased presence in Europe with a number of small cars
has benefitted the company greatly, and now the American car company
wants to forge further into European markets, and has created a dynamic
concept car, which was revealed today at the 2006 Paris Motor
Show. The North American company explains that the
WTCC Ultra is the vision of a new generation of touring car, and
celebrates Chevrolet's most recent victory in the series, after British
driver Rob Huff beat all challengers in the Czech Republic earlier this
month. The bold panels of the radically-styled
body, finished in striking Stealth Blue paint colour, are made of
glassfibre and carbon-fibre laminate to keep weight to a minimum, while
inside the car is every inch a bespoke racing machine, with rubberised
black paint on the dashboard, which is as ergonomically laid out as on
a production car. Design chief David Lyon talked about
the new concept: "We wanted to explore the concept of a Chevrolet
muscle car reinvented for Europe. The Ultra is a car that celebrates
Chevy's racing heritage with a very forward looking design." But
unlike most styling studies, the WTCC Ultra is a fully working vehicle,
powered by a 140kW (190hp) common-rail turbo diesel engine based on the
unit that's soon to debut in the all-new Captiva SUV. The
car is also as global as the Chevrolet brand, with engineers and
designers from all over the world working as a team to bring it to
production. The initial concept and early design work was carried out
in South Korea at the GM DAT Advanced Design Studio, while the dynamic
look was the responsibility of 25-year old Ewan Kingsbury – a
graduate of Coventry University in England and now working for GM's
Australian styling department at Holden. Colour and
materials design was the work of Breony Crittenden, also of GM Holden
Australia, while the design was coordinated by engineers in the USA and
Switzerland. Final construction of the prototype took place in Japan,
with the help of British motorsport specialists Ray Mallock Ltd, the
technical partner of the Chevy WTCC Touring Car team.
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