Sometimes your wallet won’t stretch to purchasing your dream motor. But don’t worry too much, there are some cars that even the biggest bank balances can’t buy, the dream cars that will forever remain a dream. These are the concept cars that never go into production.
Renault DeZir
Described as ‘both brains and beauty’ when it was revealed at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the DeZir was a concept aimed at showcasing the French company’s pure electric ambitions, but it is hard to ignore that beauty of a car that sparked desire in many, more than living up to its name.
But what was going on here? This was a car produced by Renault, the guys behind the Clio and a range of other ‘safe’ family cars. What were they thinking with this object of motoring desire?
Well according to the brief, the DeZir was the first in a range that was supposed to represent the stages of life customers of Renault might encounter. Customers will apparently fall in love, discover the world, start a family, work, have fun and become wise. The DeZir symbolises the falling in love stage.
The mid-engined super-car came with a pair of gull-wing doors like no other, where the driver’s opens in the traditional style, the passenger has an innovative suicide-style gull-wing.
“DeZir is a statement of our new formal design language which conveys notions such as movement, sensuality and emotion through ideal proportions, in much the same way as an object whose forms have been honed by nature. The result is a warm, stimulating design that says ’Renault’," explained Axel Breun, Renault’s Director of Concept Car and Show Car Design. Fluidity was an overriding theme from the initial preliminary sketches, and was expressed by a blend of simple forms and generous volumes. "My early source of inspiration stemmed from the liquid sensation, wave-like movement and contrasts in light associated with certain rippled surfaces," observes Yann Jarsalle, who was in charge of DeZir’s exterior styling. "By directly laying out volumes and not just joining together a number of surfaces by lines, I felt more in tune with the world of sculpture than with that of architecture."
Though we never got to witness a road version of the DeZir going into production. Renault did credit the DeZir for inspiring the Renault Sport R.S. 01 sports car and also the Alpine A110-50 concept of 2012 built by Renault owed much to the ‘falling in love stage’, though there are some nods to the original A110 for which it was paying tribute.