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Concept Car of the Week: Oldsmobile Aerotech (1987)

In late 1984, Oldsmobile management had so much confidence in the potential of its new inline four-cylinder engine Quad 4, that a small team was assigned to the creation of the Aerotech, a research vehicle designed to demonstrate the engine's performance by setting a new world speed record. Ed Welburn, then assistant chief designer, was mostly working on the 1988 Cutlass Supreme but his passion for race cars made him the ideal candidate to be handed the assignment by Oldsmobile 2 studio's chief David North. Inspired by Le Mans racers such as the Porsche 917LH and Jim Hall's Chaparrals, he designed a long, flowing car that immediately seduced design director Chuck Jordan and GM management.

Audi Urban Concept City Car first photos

Audi Urban Concept City Car - first photos It’s hard to know exactly what Audi plans to do with their City Car - the Audi Urban Concept – once they’ve rolled it out to the world at Frankfurt 2011. Are they planning to put the diminutive electric Audi go-kart in to production? We really don’t know, but if they are, it’s a while away; we’ve been getting e-Tron concepts for an age with no concrete sign of their arrival, so any production Urban Concept from Audi is not going to happen quickly.

Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge would get over 500bhp

Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge would get over 500bhp The Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept was actually revealed in photos by Infiniti 10 days ago, but now it’s had a proper Detroit reveal and, although just a concept, it offers promise. Yes, the Q50 Eau Rouge is about Infiniti cashing some of the kudos they get from sponsoring Red Bull, so we get lots about the Q50 being inspired by F1, F 1 flappy paddles, F1 aerodynamics… But the fact is that the Q50 Eau Rouge does look promising and Infiniti has made a decent fist of adding go faster bits and bobs – including carbon fibre, inside and out – without making the Q50 look silly. But what’s most interesting is that the Q50 Eau Rouge perhaps has the potential to tackle cars like the Mercedes E63 and the BMW M5 if, and it’s still an if, it goes in to production.