Rinspeed's Harmonious Zen-Mobile

Motoring Channel Staff- 19/12/2005

Eclectic Swiss-based design company Rinspeed has revealed plans for the launch of its latest design, called the zaZen.

With all Rinspeed designs, such as the Chopster and Senso, there's often a novelty feature, and the zaZen is no different in this respect.

It may look like an atypical concept car, but in fact features holographic brake lights, which mark the beginning of a new era in lighting technology for vehicle design, says Rinspeed.

The zaZen, whose official launch will be on February 28th, 2006, at the Geneva Motor Show, also features a unique mineral-white paint job.

Rinspeed explains that the organically designed body does not assault the eye with harsh colours but exerts a quiet fascination with its mineral-white color.

Interestingly, this colour is achieved in an understated manner through the use of millions of tiny precious Swarovski crystals protected by a self-healing polyurethane clear coat.

As the company correctly observes, in its made-to-measure suit, the zaZen seems to belong to another world. The front end, and moreso the headlights, however, look as though they've come straight from the Ferrari Scaglietti spare parts bin.

In conjuction with Bayer MaterialScience, one of the world's biggest plastics producers, Rinspeed contracted Swiss engineering specialists Esoro to craft the new vehicle, whose conspicuously large third brake light shines out of what looks like a floating, transparent teardrop roof.

The technical revolution in the car's design is that the transparent rear window has been turned into a luminous holographic area.

Rinspeed explains that the entire roof dome, right down to the belt line, is made of a single sheet of transparent high-tech polycarbonate (called Makrolon). Polycarbonates belong to a family of thermoplastics that have a high strength and are often used as a shatter-resistant alternative to glass.

The amazing thing about this new polycarbonate is that the material can be made non-transparent at the press of a button to protect the occupants from curious gazes, an innovative material that could work its way into high-end production cars across the globe, given time.

Because the transparency can simply be switched on and off, it means that any superfluous knobs and displays on the dashboard can be simply faded out so that the driver can concentrate on what is most important, such as the speed indicator, instead of being bombarded with unnecessary information.

And instead of a living-room atmosphere, the occupants sit in "glass-like" plastic seat shells in a bright and friendly orange color. The interior is an invitation to meditative unity for man and machine, claim Rinspeed, who may have been

The world premiere of the zaZen, with its holographic brake light and smoothly contoured single-section roof dome made of the Makrolon ushers in a new era in lighting technology and transparent surfacing in vehicle design.

This, at any rate, is how Ian Paterson, the member of the Bayer MaterialScience Board of Management who is responsible for innovation, sees it. The innovative light is also an important step for Rinspeed's boss, Frank M. Rinderknecht, on the way to attaining automotive enlightenment.

The name of the new concept car has been deliberately chosen to reflect the overall attitude with which both companies have driven the entire project forward over a period of many months. After all, Zen – borrowed from Buddhist teaching – is a special form of insight that is only attainable if you are prepared to give up preconceived ideas.

Rinspeed's zaZen will make its first appearance at the end of February at the Geneva Motor Show in '06 and after that, who knows? We might see some of these exclusive vehicles actually driving along our roads.