Skip to main content

Buick Wildcat

To put it mildly, Buick isn’t the most exciting brand at the moment. Its lineup consists of several very dull and uninspiring sedans and SUVs aimed primarily at retirees who need something to ferry them between the golf club and the grocery store. But it wasn’t always like that, and one independent designer, Marc Senger, thinks it’s time for a re-think.
The Buick Wildcat concept is a rather adventurous design which takes its influence from the 1954 Buick Wildcat II concept – produced back when GM’s designers worked for their money. The role of the Wildcat would be to act as a halo car and entice younger buyers to the brand.

Senger has pitched his car to compete against the likes of the BMW z4 and Audi TT. However whereas these cars rely on 4, 5 and 6 cylinder configurations – in both naturally aspirated and turbocharged forms – the Buick Wildcat concept would be fitted with a 5.5 litre inline 8 complete with a supercharger, a turbocharger and an electra charger. Senger predicts this unorthodox powerplant would be capable of producing 582 hp @ 7,900 rpm, and allow the car to hit 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds.

Now I’m not going to speculate on the validity of such an unusual drivetrain configuration, primarily because the car will never get built. However as a design exercise to produce something outlandish, exciting and original – something to counteract the otherwise very boring Buick range – I think it’s just crazy enough to work.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Maserati Ghibli vs BMW 6 Series : Which Will You Buy?

When considering vehicles like Maserati Ghibli and the BWM 6 Series Gran Coupe, both reflect an effort toward blending dignified luxury with exhilarating performance. Though beholding vehicles of this caliber is always an exercise most fruitfully left to the natural eye, the image above serves as a simple example of each sedan’s inherent dignity. In lieu of experiencing each vehicle’s performance profile from behind the wheel, the table provided similarly works to demonstrate what both Ghibli and BMW’s 6 series have been engineered to accomplish. Comparing the Maserati Ghibli vs. BMW 6 Series in this regard yields a number of important emphases. Local clients will notice that both vehicles develop their identity around six-cylinder engines with a pair of strategic turbochargers. Yet regardless of identical displacement and analogous induction technology, Maserati serves its Ghibli clients with significantly greater quantities of horsepower and torque. In addition to t...
Read more

Mercedes-Benz SL550

Of all the Mercedes-Benz models that could be accused of being born with a silver spoon in its mouth, the SL arguably tops the list. Unlike many grand-touring cars, the Mercedes SL has never been forced to compromise its blue-blood personal-luxury/sport ideals with feigned attempts at practicality to please executives or attract buyers. It has, more or less, remained an unapologetic take-it-or-leave-it proposition since it debuted nearly six decades ago, and the 2013 SL550 does nothing to alter its course. Cool, Quiet Confidence Every move the 2013 SL550 makes is steeped in a competent, laid-back confidence; pin the throttle, and the car takes a moment to gather itself, as if saying to the driver, “Okay, dude, you ready? This is gonna be pretty awesome.” And with that, the seven-speed automatic downshifts, the twin turbos gorge themselves on air, and the whole shebang takes off, pulling hard to an observed 159-mph top speed (Mercedes claims an electronically limited 155). Life in th...
Read more

Porsche 913

Forgetting the Panamera, Cayenne and Macan, Porsche offer a pretty well-rounded sports car range. Starting with the Boxster and Cayman, and moving up the multitude of variations of the Porsche 911, all the way up to the 918 Spyder supercar. But there is a HUGE price gap between the top of the range 911 Turbo ($250,000 will all the options ticked), to the 918 Spyder ($800,000). Somewhere in that range Porsche could surely offer something to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. Something like the 913 possibly? Conceived by the fertile mind of Rene Garcia, a professional 3D modeller who has created conceptual vehicles and highly detailed models for some of the biggest movies of the past decade, including the Matrix Trilogy, Transformers, the latest Star Trekthrillers and The Avengers, the Porsche 913 is an exquisitely rendered design in every detail. It has a bit of the 918 Spyder about it, but there’s also a lot of originality to the design. It looks like a Porsche, ...
Read more