While many of Geneva's minority entries are fun, they're often hard to take seriously - oddball tuning houses and never-gonna-happen one-offs. Which is where, normally, we'd file a Singaporean electric supercar concept featuring power operated doors and roof apparently inspired by an orchid. But then we learned that Williams is involved and paid a visit before Geneva kicked off to get the inside line.
Oh good, it has some suspension
This is Williams Advanced Engineering, to be precise, sister business to the Formula 1 team and the consultancy behind Jaguar's aborted C-X75 hybrid hypercar among other things. The Vanda Dendrobium is a concept that's been created on behalf of a Singaporean battery manufacturer, but we're assured there is a serious ambition to turn it into production reality.
Pitched as "Singapore's first ever hypercar" the Dendrobium has been commissioned by Vanda Electrics, an electrical mobility start-up which has previously produced a range of electric minibikes. According to Larissa Tan, Vanda's CEO, Vanda's parent company - Wong Fong Industries - has wanted to create something like the Dendrobium for nearly 20 years, but has been waiting for technology to catch up with the corporate ambition in terms of performance.
Taking a leaf out of the Civic Type R's book
Sadly that's where reality takes the off-ramp, because although the show concept is capable of motivating itself at a respectable clip - expect to see it at events like Goodwood - it hasn't been engineered to deliver on the hypercar target. Ian Cluett, who led development for Williams, explains that the show concept uses a single motor to drive the rear wheels and is powered by a modified Formula E battery pack (another Williams project). The production version, if it happens, is scoped to use a far more advanced all-wheel drive powertrain, state-of-the-art batteries, a total system output of around 1,500hp, a 2.6-second 0-60mph time and will target a top speed of over 200mph, requiring the use of a a two-speed transmission for the rear axle.
Any production version would share the Dendrobium concept's fundamental design, which we're told is the work of an unnamed team in Singapore, and which it makes it look like a hybridised cross between a Group C prototype and one of the racing pods from the original Wipeout video game. It's built around a central carbon fibre tub with metal subframes mounted front and rear and, although it's not been in a windtunnel, the wedgy aerodynamics have been subjected to intensive CFD modelling to confirm that they should indeed work.
Your doors hinge from the front? Pah!
Then there are the doors. In a world where front-hinged gullwing doors have become pretty much commonplace for motor show concepts it obviously takes something special to stand out these days. In the case of the Dendrobium that means rear-hinged butterfly doors which motor open at the same time as the roof raises itself, to a) make getting in and out slightly easier and b) attract the maximum possible amount of attention. Oh, and their "theatrically orchestrated" opening is, apparently, inspired by the dendrobium flower, a type of orchid native to Singapore, hence the name.
Being invited to climb in during the unveiling at Williams' Grove HQ reveals a mostly carbon cabin with switchgear sharing the same six-sided shape that features heavily throughout the car, and which apparently is inspired by honeycomb. The driving position feels too high given the supercar ambition, although that could be dropped for a production version, but it was good to find twin video display screens for that other motor show concept staple - a camera-based rear mirror system. When is somebody going to actually produce one?
You're getting the honeycomb theme, right?
As you've probably spotted, there's an absence of facts at this point beyond the fact the Dendrobium is a cool-looking concept and Vanda says it hopes to take the project further. A decision on whether to build it will, apparently, be taken after reaction at Geneva has been gauged, although even if a production version managed to deliver the promised face-melting performance the steer is that it would come with what would probably be a seven-figure pricetag. In a world where manufacturers like McLaren are readying their own hyper-EVs, that could be a tough ask. Still, if it does go ahead it looks like Williams will be productionising it and maybe even building it, and we can all agree that's a good thing.