The new course of Volkswagen design summed up in a prototype created under the guidance of Peter Schreyer, who has been in charge of VW design since last year. As seen at the Frankfurt Show, the Concept R is a thoroughbred roadster that retains all the logic and clarity of the Volkswagen tradition in its lines, its ornament and its masses, but adds in a powerful emotional charge that derives in part from the often humanised treatment of its masses (most particularly the “expression on its face”).<\/p>\n
The overall design is straightforward: no add-on frills, not even the air intakes on the sides that are currently all the rage in sports car design. Seen from above, the body is a monolith formed of two intersecting V shapes, on which the mirror-image front and rear sections are based. The tail is perfectly symmetrical, its twin exhausts at the centre seeming to extend the lines that spread out from the bonnet.<\/p>\n
The head and tail lights are identical in shape and both use LED technology so that they take up very little space (an ideal solution given the almost non-existent overhangs), as well as show-casing the meticulous architecture of the interior whenever they light up.<\/p>\n
Shaped, like the exterior, for emotional impact, the interior features an array of cutting-edge technology. A single continuous arch embraces the cabin from the base of the windscreen to the doors. Into it, the wing-shaped dashboard and the two side panels, all covered in soft kidskin (like the seats), are all slotted.<\/p>\n
The contrast between soft, warm matte leather and the cold gleam of the polished aluminium instruments, highlights key elements in a way that creates a direct, unambiguous relationship between the driver and his surroundings.<\/p>\n
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 143<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>[images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1712200301_VolsksWagen_Concept_R-300×194.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1712200302_VolsksWagen_Concept_R-300×194.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1712200303_VolsksWagen_Concept_R-292×300.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1712200301_VolsksWagen_Concept_R-300×194.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1712200302_VolsksWagen_Concept_R-300×194.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1712200303_VolsksWagen_Concept_R-292×300.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-concept-en"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 01:37:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}