Boy Racer Gone Wild

Chevy’s WTCC Ultra Concept is an international effort designed in Australia, powered by Korea, and built in Japan.

Boy Racer Gone Wild

By Stuart Schwartzapfel

Set to debut at this month’s Paris Motor Show, the WTCC Ultra Concept is a joint venture of General Motors Europe, Holden in Australia, GM Daewoo in South Korea, and RML Racing in England. To be specific, it was designed by GM of Australia’s Ewan Kingsbury, with development work done in Europe, engine-building in Korea, and the show car itself bolted together in Japan.

Chevrolet Europe is using the new concept car to tantalize race fans with a vision of the next-generation contender for the World Touring Car Championship, an international race organized by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile).

Chevrolet claims that the WTCC Ultra Concept is ready to tackle the race track despite its ‘concept’ status, although this seems an odd claim considering that the car has yet to be shown in anything other than company-released sketches.

ALL TYPES OF RACERS. Touring car racing is a general term that covers many automobile racing competitions featuring heavily modified street cars. Unlike GT (grand touring) race cars, touring race cars are based on 4-door 'family' sedans or, more rarely, 2-door coupes.

GT racing cars are based upon more exotic vehicles, such as Ferraris or Porsches. Touring Cars are often closer to stock, using many original components and mountings, while a GT car can utilize a one-off racing chassis underneath a cosmetic bodyshell.

Compact, but tough as a Tonka truck, the Chevrolet WTCC Ultra has an overall length of just over 14 ft., a couple of feet shy of a modern day Mini Cooper. Although the car is coupe-like in appearance, the sketch clearly identifies a second set of doors in the rear.

CHILDHOOD DREAMS. This may mean that the real race car to come from this design exercise will sit on a 4-door production car chassis. The hot-selling Chevrolet Cobalt seems like a suitable host.

The WTCC Ultra sketch above pushes every aspect of design to the extreme. Distinctive character lines run from one end to the other. The meaty front and rear fenders, almost-grounded front fascia, oversized wheels, aerodynamic rear spoiler, nightmare-inducing front grille, and carved-up sheet metal will force onlookers to recall a time when companies such as Matchbox and Hot Wheels played a more prominent role in their lives.

The Verdict: This WTCC Ultra concept car evokes shrunken American muscle, much as the Dodge Hornet does (see our previous Concept of the Week on the Hornet). Today’s ever-growing tuner culture makes it difficult to tell whether certain auto features are intended for form, function, or both. The front fascia on the WTCC concept, for instance, would be hard pressed to clear a speed bump.

It is also difficult to drive when the fenders actually make contact with the tires that sit beneath them. Yes, it is only a drawing, but fantasy sketches are not always easy to render in sheet metal. We reserve judgment until Chevrolet reveals something tangible in Paris this month.

Schwartzapfel, a certified car freak, writes BusinessWeek.com's Concept of the Week column. He has studied the automotive marketplace and worked as an advertising/marketing strategist for major manufacturers. He does not write about any car brands for which he currently works.