Forget Playing it Safe: Meet the Volvo SC90 Concept
Click above to view the Volvo SC90 concept in high resolution
The four-door coupe segment has been sweeping across the industry, blurring the line between sportscar and sedan with such tantalizing examples as the Aston Martin Rapide, Mercedes CLS, BMW CS concept... and heck, why not, even the Porsche Panamera (somebody probably likes it). Volvo may not be the kind of company that easily jumps on bandwagons, preferring to stick to station wagons instead, but what if the Swedish automaker that made its reputation on safety were to go head-to-head with these super-sedans? One answer could be the S60 Concept the company just unveiled in Detroit, but as much attention as that show car garnered, what you see here is an even more convincing take on the theme: meet the Volvo SC90 design study.
Conceived by Volvo designer Nouphone J. Bansasine while undertaking an internship at the company in the summer of 2007, the SC90 concept cuts a striking silhouette that only gets "more complex and fresh [on the] second read." Far more aggressive and sharply-styled than anything we've seen from Volvo before, our only beef with the SC90 is that it exists only on paper. With the company's future in jeopardy and car sales down around the world, now may not be the time to introduce a car like this... but then again, considering that the upper end of the market continues to grow, may now's the perfect time. We'll run with that one. Check out the images in the gallery and the video after the jump to see all the angles.
Gallery: Volvo SC90 design study
[Source: Car Body Design]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
TigerMil 2:33PM (1/15/2009)
Derivative. Of course, all cars (mostly) have four wheels so that same comment can be made across the board.
But on this car, all it needs is a leaping cat to call it a Jag.
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homunculus 2:41PM (1/15/2009)
it's more jaguar than jaguar.
garlinski 2:47PM (1/15/2009)
I was thinking "more Aston than the XF" especially the hind quarters. I like it.
geo.stewart 3:10PM (1/15/2009)
the S60 is so much better.
this car's biggest problem is the roofline. the successful 4 dr 'coupe' has to maintain a semblance of a sedan roof to be useful, thus most look more like a chopped version with a little more rear rake into the trunk space.
Randy 3:26PM (1/15/2009)
Very Aston.... I don't see much Jag in it other than the long hood that's also very Aston...
They should Astonize Lincoln....... and Linconlize Mercury! And well Ford is just Rockin right now so no suggestions there! Other than the Fiesta... Can you make the hood beefier please? The trend is aiming that way now already!
So far off topic.. i know :)
Gregg 5:03PM (1/15/2009)
@ Nude Love...
Yes, it is. Ridden in one lately? Pretty bullet proof for police and taxi work, but it is completely unusable on a modern car, unless you want something that is flexy-creaky, unable to accept some current safety equipment, and unable to measure up to RWD luxury car competition.
VVVM 6:24PM (1/15/2009)
I dunno, from that front 3/4 view, i see a lot of an elongated 370z. It actually looks derivative from different cars for every different angle. Kind of interesting that way. In any case, nice looking car.
If that video was actually made by Volvo, I would have thought they had Hans Zimmer on the payroll.
elv11 2:32AM (1/16/2009)
It's like a mix of Lexus LF-C (from the front and sides) and LF-A (from the back)
Gregg 2:37PM (1/15/2009)
Yes, but in order to take this from a drawing to a concept car, they would need RWD archtecture, and neither Ford nor Volvo has anything to fill that bill.
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zamafir 2:45PM (1/15/2009)
Which doesn't matter because TATA owns Jag and TATA has an awesome, uber cheap, rwd platform for the nano... so all we need to do is convince Tata to buy Volvo, even though he's loosing mad cash right now, and it'll all work fine.
Oh... Concept from 2007 it says... old news? nm.
Alex 2:53PM (1/15/2009)
Yeah, stupid FWD Mustangs.
I understand that the Mustang is a two door, but it is not unheard of to lengthen a platform.
Gregg 3:01PM (1/15/2009)
Excuse me Alex, but the Mustang platform has a solid rear axle and a design that cannot be easily lengthened. Don't you think Ford would have already used the Mustang architecture, rather than starting a new and expensive RWD program (and then killing it again before it really got off the ground) if it were possible to use it for a big car? Don't ask me why they were so short-sighted as to design a new Mustang platform that could not be stretched without a total redesign. But now they are stuck with it. The new 2014 Mustang design is slated to have the same solid axle as well. Ford has nothing else RWD to use. Even the Australian RWD platform is doomed to be replaced by FWD/AWD.
Red 3:12PM (1/15/2009)
@Gregg,
He never said it was easy. He said it's been done. And it has. Even Ford recently did it with the Interceptor concept. Nobody said it was necessarily easy.
Also @ AB, I wouldn't call the Panamera a four door coupe by any stretch. I think it's more like BMW's SAV.
Gregg 4:43PM (1/15/2009)
@ Red...I know the Interceptor was cobbled together on a stretched Mustang platform. It managed to hold that beautiful (IMHO) body up, but could not be functional in the real world. Once again, if Ford could make the Mustang platform really work for large rwd sedans, then they would have. But it was cheaper to start over, and even that was eventually determined to be too great an expense, given current priorities.
Nude Love 4:57PM (1/15/2009)
Crown Vic is RWD, innit?
Ligor 9:24PM (1/15/2009)
well,
Ford had the Linncoln LS, which as far as I can recall in Motortrend it went up against a 540i and won the comparison.
so they cna just bring that back with few modifications - increase number of welds, maybe introduce some laserwelding, make some parts of it Aluminum and update the suspension the LS had and there you have your RWD
and how do you know that the Ford RWD architecture that was being developed is not related to the Mustangs? Maybe that's what Ford was doing, and they already were working on getting the Mustang with IRS and then called it too expensive, which would not be an issue with this Volvo as I can see it asking about $45+k for it's price.
F-22 2:40PM (1/15/2009)
Photoshops, renders or "CGI" based on a CLS...with bits of Aston Martin...
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Chase 2:43PM (1/15/2009)
Wow! That's amazing. I think that's my favorite "four door coupe" design yet. The volvo elements are very distinguishing, and look great!
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ted 2:44PM (1/15/2009)
Looks like a cross between an M6 and an RX-8
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hashiryu 2:44PM (1/15/2009)
All 4 door ..... coupe looking cars... will look similar to each other. I don't find that this one has any other glaring similarity other than 4 doors and its profile, and i think it looks great.
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