Category Archives: CONCEPT CARS

CONCEPT CARS

Corvette CX Concept: The Future Just Got Loud (and a Bit Electric)

Chevrolet, bless them, is on a bit of a roll. When they’re not busy making Nürburgring lap times look like typos with the ZR1X, they’re clearly holding late-night pizza-fuelled design meetings where the words “practical” and “subtle” are banned.

The result? The Corvette CX Concept — a car that looks like it’s been beamed in from the year 2087 to shame every other sports car in Monterey. It’s low, it’s wide, it’s angry. And it’s electric. Yes, electric. Your ears might miss the V8, but your organs won’t — because the CX comes packing four motors, one for each wheel, and a battery the size of a small apartment. That’s 2,000 horsepower. Two. Thousand.

The “X” in CX stands for “C10,” which in Chevy-speak means “tenth generation.” Sadly, they’re not actually building it, which is the cruelest kind of foreplay. But Chevy swears this is the design blueprint for future Corvettes — so you can expect production models to inherit the CX’s forward-lunging nose, chiselled chin, and enough vents to qualify as a Swiss cheese sculpture.

It’s all the handiwork of GM’s finest in Michigan and the Motorsports Aero wizards in Charlotte. They even fitted a “Vacuum Fan System” to suck air through the open-channel bodywork, which sounds suspiciously like something Batman would approve of.

And the doors? Forget doors. The whole canopy tilts forward like a fighter jet. Inside, it’s Inferno Red leather, milled aluminium, carbon fibre, and a yoke-style steering wheel. The dashboard? Doesn’t exist. Instead, the windshield is a giant head-up display. The CX doesn’t so much tell you you’re in the future as drop you head-first into it.

If that’s all too “daily drivable” for you, meet its spicier sibling: the CX.R Vision Gran Turismo. This one’s not just digital fantasy for Gran Turismo 7 — it’s an electric–petrol hybrid with a twin-turbo 2.0-litre V8 screaming its head off to 15,000 rpm, assisted by three electric motors. The result? Still 2,000 horsepower, but now with enough noise to annoy every neighbour in a three-mile radius. Add the massive wing, racing livery, and ride height so low it could limbo under a caterpillar, and you’ve got something that makes the standard CX look like a school run.

Will you ever own one? No. Will you ever drive one? Only if you own a PlayStation. But that’s the point — the Corvette CX is less a car and more a mission statement. A promise that when the electric Corvette finally arrives, it’s going to look like this. And that’s worth every digital lap you’re about to spend your weekend doing.

Source: Chevrolet

CONCEPT CARS

Lexus LFR: The LFA’s Spiritual Successor or the LC500’s Angrier Cousin?

Well, this was unexpected. You go to The Quail expecting to be fed canapés and watch a billionaire try to reverse a McLaren Speedtail into a hedge, and Lexus turns up with something that looks like it escaped from Gran Turismo 8. They’re calling it the Sport Concept—which sounds like what a PowerPoint file would be named before marketing gets involved—but we all know what’s really going on here. This is the first proper glimpse of what we’ve been whispering about for ages: the Lexus LFR.

And, my word, it’s gorgeous. Imagine an LFA and an LC500 got stuck in a wind tunnel together, were left overnight, and in the morning you found this thing sitting there with a smug grin.

Lexus is keeping its cards closer to its chest than a poker player at the world championships, but here’s what we do know. It’s a front-engine, rear-drive, twin-turbo V8 job with what’s likely a rear transaxle—because the engine’s pushed so far back it’s practically trying to escape into the firewall. There’s a Toyota twin too, but that one won’t be coming to the US. Shame. Oh, and it’s going to form the bones for Toyota’s next GT3 race car, which means under all that concept flash, this thing is serious.

The details are delicious: exhaust pipes hiding under the rear wing like some secret weapons system, giant rear vents that could have been lifted from the LFA’s design sketchbook, and big side intakes that might feed cooling air to brakes, the gearbox, or possibly the afterburners. On the rear brake light, there are four tiny fans—no one’s saying what they do, but it’s the sort of thing that makes car nerds rub their hands like Victorian villains.

Of course, it’s still very much a concept car. There’s no interior—just blacked-out windows—and even the Bridgestone logos were shaved off the tyres, presumably so we’d focus on the bodywork rather than start price-matching rubber. But Lexus’s promise that the production car will look “a lot like this” is enough to have us making the sort of noise you normally reserve for spotting a wild Ferrari F40 in traffic.

Fun fact: Toyota and Lexus actually benchmarked the AMG GT R when developing it, because it’s one of the best front-engine, rear transaxle sports cars in recent memory. This explains the proportions, the long bonnet, and the confident stance. It’s also a cheeky nod that Lexus isn’t aiming for “good for a Lexus” anymore—they’re aiming for world class.

The last time Lexus gave us a truly uncompromising sports car, it was called the LFA. It had a screaming V10, cost as much as a country estate, and was instantly one of the best cars on Earth. Now, this? This looks like they might be ready to do it again—but with turbos, race-car DNA, and just enough attitude to make the Germans sweat.

Brace yourselves. The LFR might just be coming. And it’s not here to play nice.

Source: Lexus; Photo: Brian Silvestro / Motor1

CONCEPT CARS

Meet the Cadillac Elevated Velocity: Luxury, Lunacy, and a Dash of Mars Rover

Cadillac has clearly decided that “normal” is a word best left to accountants, not car designers. Their latest concept, the Elevated Velocity, is what happens when you take last year’s Opulent Velocity, feed it a double shot of espresso, and tell it it’s allowed to run wild in the desert.

It’s a high-riding electric SUV, yes—but that’s like calling the Space Shuttle a “commuter vehicle.” This is Cadillac imagining a world where autonomous driving and good old-fashioned steering-wheel-wrangling can live under the same panoramic glass roof.

From the outside, it’s pure sci-fi V-Series: hulking stance, gullwing doors that open like they’re greeting alien royalty, illuminated 24-inch wheels (which Cadillac insists are “probably” going into production), and taillight fins that look like they belong on a ’59 Eldorado—if that Eldorado had been designed by Blade Runner’s art department.

Underneath? Electric. That’s all Cadillac’s saying. No range figures. No torque numbers. No rock-crawling specs. And frankly, it doesn’t matter—because this isn’t the sort of concept that talks about approach and departure angles. It’s here to make a statement, not to get muddy.

Inside, the Elevated Velocity is a mood board on wheels. Every surface is some shade of red—leather, boucle, you name it—and there isn’t a single conventional screen in sight. Instead, there’s a display in the steering wheel itself, because apparently that’s the future. Other features range from the vaguely plausible (cabin air purification, adaptive air suspension) to the outright bonkers (infrared light for “rejuvenation” and a dust-phobic vibration system that literally shakes dirt off the car). Oh, and there’s a hand-crafted polo set, because why not.

Driving modes are where things get properly wild:

  • Elevate Mode: Car drives itself, pedals and wheel vanish like a Vegas magic act.
  • Velocity Mode: You’re in charge—Cadillac trusts you not to bin it.
  • E-Velocity Mode: A more intense version for spirited on-road driving.
  • Terra Mode: For when you want to go off-road like a lunatic with a taste for champagne.

Cadillac will be showing it off on August 15 at The Quail during Monterey Car Week, which is the perfect venue for something that looks like it could double as a Bond villain’s escape pod. Will any of this actually make it into production? Hard to say. But Cadillac insists the future is electric—and if this is what they mean, that future is going to look utterly mad.

Source: Cadillac