While I finish up the Karmann Ghia CC, and allow its timeless lines to inspire me, I’ll let you be inspired by a few classics of the future from the Tokyo Auto Show. A growing trend, among other questionable design directions, are fake wheels. Why not? We’re at the point in the evolution of the automobile, where wheels aren’t really a vital component any more, except in their virtual form. This is the Toyota Boshoku.
This personal mobility vehicle sports a particularly fetching set of “wheels”.
The Suzuki Q-Concept’s “wheels” look like mints, or?
I can’t tell for sure, but it almost looks like those wheel spats on the Honda Compo are hiding fake wheels, given how close to the floor they are. Or are tires no longer necessary?
Enough already. Some of us were pretty shocked by Pininfarina’s Ferrari Modulo, in 1970. A Ferrari with covered wheels? What’s the world coming too?
Man, I loved that Modulo. Damned shame it never went into some kind of ‘series’ production.
The Modulo appeared to be the inspiration for the DeLorean, sealed-windows and all! I assume HD-factory A/C came standard – that car would certainly need it.
The streets of my city are filled with decomposing leaves. I can just see driving that Q-Concept “city car” here. Its fully enclosed wheels would get clogged solid before I reached the corner.
Are enclosed wheels a reaction to the likes of this?
I don’t see the cars in the first three photos. 😉
I don’t see cars in the first FOUR photos. 🙂
Looks like a giant Adirondack-style deck chair, a grandma scooter with snowmobile fairing grafted on the front, some kind of oversized kitchen appliance, and a cross between a hockey helmet and a Star Trek shuttlecraft.
The Modulo is still cool, but I wouldn’t want to have to change a tire on it.
Been there, done that?
I like the Modulo, but the rest of them look like giant Happy Meal toys.