LA auto show hollywood movie car design challenge

the LA auto show ‘design challenge’ invited mercedes-benz, honda, and other car manufacturers to design ‘hollywood’s hottest new movie car’

each year as part of the LA auto show, the ‘design challenge‘ invites automotive design teams from across the world to create concept vehicles in response to a given theme. the 2011 competition is ‘hollywood’s hottest new movie car’, in which honda, mercedes-benz, smart car, subaru, hyundai, and maybach submitted concepts for both the vehicle and the film it would star in.

the jury panel is composed of jay shuster, art director at pixar animation studio, tom matano, direction of industrial design at academy of art university, and mark west and stewart reed, both chairs of transportation design at detroit college for creative studies and the art center college of design respectively.

read more about each company’s concept car and film below:

— honda ‘IH‘ (‘intelligent horse’) in ‘high noon’ design team: wojtek bachleda, taryn dyle, raj rihal

‘high noon’ documents the showdown between vehicles as they compete for fuel and other resources in a world destroyed by the impact of a comet. ‘the few scientists [remaining on earth] have created a vehicle that serves as a companion and protector in the inhospitable and lonely environment’ based on ‘the legend and material remains of an ancient creature called the horse.‘

the vehicle highlights the importance that local production processes, artificial intelligence with centralized design resources, and additive technology will have in the manufacturing techniques of the future.

the honda ‘IH’

‘IH’ concept sketches

— mercedes-benz ‘silver arrow‘ in ‘silver lightning’ design team: hubert lee, jackson luttig, yasu sato, alan barrington

the film ‘silver lightning’ features two intelligent crash dummies as they seek to save their ‘silver arrow’ concept car from the clutches of the evil dr. crash-barrier. the ‘silver arrow’ is based on mercedes-benz racing vehicles, slung on large ‘hoop’ wheels with hub-less, ‘omni-directional’ maneuvering capability.

‘this epic adventure has it all, including a surprise ending that will have audiences cheering as our reluctant heroes save the day with a little old-school subterfuge and help from the great tradition of the mercedes-benz automobiles.‘

the ‘silver arrow’ concept car

left: 3/4 frontal view; right: detail on the hub-less, ‘omnidirectional’ wheels

— subaru ‘horizon‘ in ‘divided’ design team: takashi hagino, yoshifumi tomita, yoshiaki sakaguchi, tomoyuki kato, yohei noshiro, masashi kaneda, takamitsu watanabe

in the plot of ‘divided’, the earth’s rotation has stopped and the planet became split into the ‘daysphere’ and the ‘nightsphere’. society has flourished in the nightsphere, where electricity and technology make up for the lack of natural sunlight, but the power plant depends on a rare mineral that is running out.

a team of four adventurers is tasked with traveling to the daysphere where the only source of this mineral is to be found. their ‘horizon’ vehicle is built to withstand the strong electromagnetic field, chemical imbalances, heat, and storms of this part of the planet.

the subaru ‘horizon’

the ‘horizon’ is built specifically to help the adventurers survive the daysphere

— smart ‘341 parkour‘ in ‘annie get the grannies!’ design team: sylvain wehnert, emiel burki, phillipp haban

in ‘annie get the grannies!’ the ‘341 parkour’ car by smart helps reporter annie angle solve the mystery of the missing granny robots. the vehicle features three modes: driving, flying, and climbing, with retractable wheels, impulse pads, and vacuum cups built-in to assist in these functions. a greenhouse chassis design offers 360-degree visibility.

full view of the smart ‘341 parkour’

the vehicle can drive, hover, or climb walls, as seen here

— hyundai ‘stratus sprinter’ and ‘DB atlant airship’ in ‘countess of siberia’ design team: tony chen, woo tak kim

the immortal countess elena, born in moscow in 1829 of vampire parents, has been upgrading her personal vehicles her entire life as she fights communism around the globe. the ‘stratus sprinter’ has high ground clearance, enabling it to traverse any road conditions, while the ‘airship’ floats hidden in the sky to avoid detection.

the ‘DB atlant airship’

the ‘stratus sprinter’

— mercedes maybach ‘berline‘ in ‘cinderella’ design team: jan kaul, christopher ottersbach, philipp haban

a reinterpretation of ‘cinderella’ sees the unhappy cindy take a prototype model of a new electric car out on the town for the evening of her birthday, where she enjoys the autonomous driving and lounge-like design of the vehicle:

‘the carriage is teleoperated via a satellite link to a ‘maybach virtual chauffeur center’. this leaves maximum interior space for the passengers and also allows maximum privacy. the passengers are seated in a vis-à-vis seating layout with a ‘royal lounge’ on one side and two single seats on the other. a large glass screen with 3D laser projection is suspended from the ceiling and can display the virtual chauffeur or a variety of media and entertainment. the interior and exterior come together seamlessly and are comprised of sustainable materials like wood. large divided gullwing doors with oversized privacy glass open wide for entry with retractable stairs for convenient entrance, as in business jets.‘

exterior view of the maybach ‘berline’