Designer Frank Rinderknecht has been freebasing the styling clay again. Or perhaps not. Either way, the eccentric
and his posse at Rinspeed have come up with yet another wild and wacky concept, the “zAZen,” which apparently
is Rinspeak for “automotive enlightenment on four wheels.”
Either way, the Porsche-based 997-based concept, set to debut on February 28 in Geneva, was produced in partnership
with the polymer prodigies at Bayer Materialscience. The result is a gigantic transparent canopy made of Makrolon®,
which turns ‘into a luminous holographic area’ that projects the third brake light ‘as if from nowhere.’ Why, we’re not
quite sure… but Rinderknecht’s mad scientist creations have been about gloriously blue-sky thinking, and we’re not
about to start arguing now. Swarovski detailing, clear seat inserts, and bespoke body paneling ensure that extrovert
owners will likely never encounter a similar car on the road.
(More photos and details after the jump)
For those interested in more visceral than visual drama, the zaZen weighs just under 3,300 lbs. and is motivated by
the 355 bhp six-pot boxer powerplant, donated (along with many other bits) from Porsche’s 997 Carrera S, all of which is
lashed to a ‘4x adjustable chassis’ designed by KW Automotive.
A small production run is being toyed with.
[Source: Rinspeed]