Concept Car of the Week: IAD Alien (1986)

Established in 1976 as a railway and aeronautical engineering company, Britain's IAD (International Automotive Design) rapidly oriented its expertise towards the automotive industry providing services from design to chassis engineering and even small-scale production. By the mid-80s two concepts had been presented – the TRX and the Arrival – that showed innovative thinking and tastefulness but a little innocuous styling.

In an attempt to attract both attention and more clients, IAD CEO John Shute asked his team to design a futuristic concept that was both innovative and different. After a highly competitive in-house selection, Martin Longmore's radical proposal was chosen.

A racecar driver himself, he designed the Alien as a sleek, high performance two-seater with the ambition to ‘Out-Countach the Countach'. The split color scheme between the dark blue and silver creates a flowing graphic that makes the Alien immediately identifiable from a mile away. The contrast between the cabin's smooth, aerodynamic surfaces and the squarer and more technical engine compartment was inspired by Giger's concept art for the movie ‘Alien', which also gave the concept its name. 

This contrast illustrates the principle in which the entire power pack could be swapped to follow the driver's needs – an economy pack 4-cylinder engine for commuting and shopping during the week, and a powerful, rented V8 pack for weekends or holidays. In a less rational way, the Alien also symbolizes the transition between the geometric lines of the seventies and the smooth rounded bio-design of the '90s.

The car's fixed front wheel hubs blend seamlessly with the body and reduce the front wheels to just a thin, black ring. The ducted hubs extract cooling air from the brakes like their counterparts at the back. At the rear, all intercoolers and radiators feed through side intakes ducted with a Venturi tunnel to minimize drag. Other integrated aero features included the spoiler at the back of the cabin and the flick above the rear lamps.

The doors rotate 90 degrees forward to provide access to the fantastic cockpit. Although Longmore did the initial sketches for it, Marcus Hotblack completed the interior and added high-tech components to match the exterior.

The high body sills and the center tunnel create individual bathtubs for the driver and passenger, making the seats very supportive and comfortable. An ergonomic steering control unit substitutes a conventional steering wheel and was designed to put every control at the driver's fingertips. The simple instrumentation offers the driver selection of analogue or digital display. All of which was integrated in such a futuristic way, that it still looks modern almost 30 years later.

At its unveiling at the 1986 Turin motor show, the public's reaction exceeded everyone's expectations. Long before the Internet, it went viral worldwide. Television, film agents and the general press were queuing up for an audience at IAD, who benefited enormously from the global publicity and the awareness it brought to the company. More importantly, the Alien became an inspiration for many of us to follow our own automotive design ambitions. 

Exterior designer Martin Longmore
Interior designer Marcus Hotblack
First seen 1986 Turin motor show 1986
Length 3,690mm
Width 1,600mm
Height 1,070mm
Wheelbase 2,390mm
Engine None

Your author, Flavien Dachet, is a UK-based, French-born car designer. You may know him as the purveyor of KarzNshit, a photo blog that if isn't already in your bookmarks, certainly should be.

By Flavien Dachet