Circulus tricycle fuel cell concept
It's inspired by a vacuum cleaner, and it probably sucksWhy do concepts like the hydrogen-powered, omnidirectionally steerable Circulus concept car generate so much more excitement than the average primary schooler's pad doodles?
There was a period in the late 1970s and early 1980s when tertiary art education was all about the triumph of concept over execution. What counted was the idea, with little thought required as to its realisation, let alone elbow grease. More extreme examples of the practice saw high distinctions awarded for little more than a couple of paragraphs suggesting the encrustment of the Eiffel Tower in beer batter, or swaddling Christo in Glad Wrap.
This came to attract some derision, and the art schools moved on. As will the auto industry -- from novelties like the Circulus concept car, a fabulous on-paper confection served up among entrants in the 2009 Michelin Challenge Design.
Get this: inspired by the Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner, graphic designer Santosh Chawla decided that device's omnidirectional sphere concept might be the go as the steering mechanism on a three-wheeled car. So he came up with the idea for a trackball-like steering mechanism controlled by an "intelligent system that recognises and responds to every movement."
Beyond something about sitting on a layer of ball bearings, there's no explanation as to how the car might be suspended atop this fabulous device. (Find me a guy with an engineering degree will you? And we'll need programmer too, for the intelligence.)
But hey, it's hydrogen fuel-cell powered (Can someone get some money and nut out a deal with someone else who's made a fuel cell please? Daimler. Hyundai. Whatever.) and made from recycled materials (Yeh, we'll need a plastics guy, too. And maybe a metallurgist.)
Plus it has a "high visibility panoramic windshield to give the occupants all-round visibility". (While the plastics guy's here, get him to invent a really, really strong plastic to go where the pillars normally go.)
All it's missing is the lunar landing gear. And maybe a Mr Whippy ice cream tap on the dashboard.
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