Getting There

Photo courtesy Toyota With the Pod, Toyota and Sony teamed up to redefine the automobile. For example, the steering wheel, accelerator and brakes are integrated together and the car has no foot pedals. The outside of the car can light up depending on the mood of the driver.

How do you build a concept car? It's an amazing process that takes hundreds of people, but here are the basic steps.

Step 1: First, you figure out what the new concept car needs to accomplish. Is it trying to excite people? Is it trying to test out new ideas? Is it trying to find out what people like? Maybe it's trying to accomplish all three. You have to nail this down before you do anything else. Then you have to start thinking about other things. This leads you to the next step.

Step 2: Brainstorming. A group gathers to come up with new ideas. They sort through the new ideas, pick the best ones, modify them, and even combine them. The goal is to narrow it down to a set of ideas that will actually make it into the concept car.

Just imagine people sitting in the brainstorming meetings for the Jeep Hurricane. The idea is a car that spins. All kinds of ideas are bouncing around the conference room. And then, someone suggests two engines -- one under the hood and one in the back. That takes everyone in a totally new direction…

Step 3: Initial sketches. Car ideas become car sketches. Artists work out all the details in these basic drawings, from every detail on the body to the entire interior design. The great thing about sketches is that they are fast. The artist can draw one, and people can look at it to decide what they like and don't like. At this point, new ideas are still flowing, too.

Photo courtesy Nissan North America, Inc. Concept sketch for the 2005 Nissan Qashqai

Step 4: The models. As the design becomes more focused through the sketch process, artists and designers can start making models. Someone might build a one-sixteenth scale model from one of the sketches. Another group might work on a "tape model" -- this is a full-scale picture of a car done using tape to draw the lines on a wall. Computer animators might build a 3-D model inside a computer, and run this model through a simulated wind tunnel. These models help the designers see and understand more about the car they are creating.

Photo courtesy General Motors Surrounded by reference sketches, a team of designers at General Motors sculpt a small-scale model car.

Step 5: The full-size clay model. Even in the age of computers, there is nothing that beats a full-size clay model of the car. The advantage of clay is that it is real. You can walk around it. You can look at it from every angle. You can "feel" it like a real car. And, clay is fairly easy to change. If the hood needs a slightly different shape, a clay artist can make the modification in a few hours.

Step 6: Building the car. Once everyone is happy with the clay design, it's time to build the concept car. People may build the car completely from scratch, or they might start with an existing chassis to speed up the process. They do everything by hand. People form and weld each piece of metal. Any car has thousands of parts, and a concept car is no different. Designers and engineers figure out what every single part will look like, they make each one and they weld the car together like a really big jigsaw puzzle.

Photo courtesy Peugeot, Direction de la Communication This four-wheel motorcycle has soem fascinating twists. Instead of a gas engine, it's powered by fuel cells. The fuel for the cells is pure hydrogen, which is stored in metal bottles. To refuel, you pop out the empty bottle and simply drop in a new one!

Concept cars come in different stages of presentation or completion - think of it like ice cream, a single scoop in a cup vs. a double-scoop waffle cone vs. a triple-scoop banana split with extra fudge. The car that you see at a car show might be just a body. That lets the designers try out styling ideas. Or, it can be a body with a complete interior, to give the impression of a total car. The ultimate concept car also has an engine and a working drive train, and people can try the car out on the road.

Photo courtesy Rinspeed, Inc. One of the most radical and bizarre concept cars ever created, the Splash is able to unfold its hydraulically-operated wings and act like a hydroplane once it hits the water. It can go up to 50 MPH in this configuration.