BMW take note
. This is how you do a concept. There are basic rules in this game and a few bits of chrome trim on a pre-production prototype everyone knows is but a few months from going on sale
doesn't cut it
, even on the immaculately manicured lawns of Pebble Beach.
Now that's what we call a concept car
Take a leaf from Opel's book, for instance. Obviously the UK market press release we received substitutes 'Vauxhall' into the name but for us
the Monza
will always be an Opel, whether it's a creaky 80s coupe with a velour interior or a 21st-century concept car with all the trimmings, including compulsory gullwing doors, rubber band tyres on outsized wheels and some near future technology claimed as being 'close to production'.
You also need an announcement packed with blah, blah, blah corporate language about visions of the automotive future and 'innovative technologies wrapped in captivating design' that could have been lifted from any previous concept press release of the last 30 years.
As such the Opel Monza Concept ticks all the boxes and warms our hearts, preserving the tradition of motor show concept cars being the stuff of dreams rather than product of a bored marketing department.
Quick, photoshop some Vauxhall logos in!
What further detail do we have about the Monza concept then? Well, "the sculptural surfaces of the 4.69-metre long, four-seat Monza Concept are modelled after ocean waves lapping on the shore." And the near-future tech? LED projection technology that gives the driver a "wide, sculpted dashboard that sweeps from door to door and is used as a single projection surface. Information and decorative elements are displayed on the surface, which the driver can customise according to his needs, taste, or mood."
Motive power is designed to be similarly adaptable to the current vogue with a modular design based around a compressed natural gas range extender to power an electric drivetrain in the Frankfurt car. This is a CNG development of the Ampera's powertrain using a new 1.0-litre SIDI motor but other powertrains could feasibly be incorporated. If they were ever going to make it, obviously.