Rinspeed iChange Concept Rings In At $1.2 Million

You can't put a price on a great concept car. Unless it's the Rinspeed iChange, which cost €1 MIllion to create for its Geneva Motor Show debut. More »

Rinspeed E2: Hot-Swappable Horsepower Heading To Geneva

While the Rinspeed E2 looks a lot like the Fiat 500 Abarth, it's actually fitted with a powertrain capable of switching power output from a 60 HP "Commuting" to a more-speedy 160 HP "Highway" level. More »

Rinspeed iChange Transforming Concept To Debut At Geneva

Following the debut of the James Bond-inspired Rinspeed Squba at the last Geneva Auto Show, Rinspeed plans to wow Transformers fans in Geneva with their iChange 1-2-3-seater concept.

The Rinspeed Bedouin: A Shooting Brake For All Seasons

This may actually be one of the most Jalopnik cars in existence and, as a shooting brake, it fits within our day's wagon theme. What makes it such a Jalopnik ride? Start with the fact that it's based on the Porsche 996 Carrera but upgraded to use natural gas, giving it 420 horsepower and 413 lb.-ft. of torque. Then realize that it's a wagon/shooting brake concept with room for four. Finally, remember that it is able to convert itself into a two-seater small truck. Porschaminowagon! Perfect for a Klan rally on Tatooine, as pictured above. More »

The Rinspeed "X-Treme" Is A Swiss Extravaganza

The mad Swiss at Rinspeed, known for both Porsche tuning and underwater Lotus tuning have set their sights on the Porsche 957 Cayenne and the results are extreme X-treme. The Rinspeed X-treme is much wider and lower than the stock Cayenne thanks to the bulging arches and matching side skirts. The whole package is also lower thanks to an electric air suspension that lets the driver adjust the car by 35 mm. More power comes courtesy of a new sport exhaust system that brings the X-treme up to 600 hp. Press release below the jump. More »

The Rinspeed sQuba Dives Into Our Hearts

There's something about Lotuses that make designers want to submerge them in water, which is fine by us. While we've heard of no Lotus/Bond deals, the Rinspeed sQuba concept makes a fine heir to the swimming Louts Esprit that submerged in The Spy Who Loved Me. While these are obviously computer animations, a real version is going to debut at the Geneva Auto Show, though we're curious if it'll still have the carbon nano tubes that allow the driver and passenger to drive straight into the water without closing the roof. Awkwardly translated press release below the jump: More »

Geneva Showcase: Rinspeed eXasis

One word, kid, plastics. That was the advice given to Benjamin Braddock, recent grad and schupper of proto-MILF, Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate." What if he'd listened? What if he'd finished his PhD in materials science, moved to Switzerland, took a job with Bayer, and created a strong, lightweight, transparent plastic that Rinspeed tapped to build a transparent roadster called the eXasis. Now, in Geneva, he could look through the eXasis's sheer body and wonder if that's really what his parents' friend was talking about after all. – Mike Spinelli More »

More on Rinspeed's "Glass Car" for Geneva

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Rinspeed to Show "Glass Car" in Geneva

The Swiss concept-car scientists at Rinspeed are readying another experiment in materials chemistry for the Geneva show this year — this time in honor of their 30th anniversary. It's called the eXasis — a "glass car" made from the latest plastics. While the errant upper-case letter in its name denotes super high-tech, its transparent, cigar-shaped body and open wheels do so equally well, as designers reimagined the legendary Auto Union racers of the 1930s in the form of a modern Baja-1000 off-road vehicle (their words, not ours). It weighs only around 1650 lbs, and is powered by a supercharged, twin-cylinder 750 cc engine configured to run on bioethanol, which is like gas, only with more muesli. Click through for suitably inflated language after the jump. – Mike Spinelli More »

Swiss Tuning: Rinspeed's Porsche Cayman, 911 Tweakers

Auto mod house Rinspeed may be best known for such outrageousness as the Zazen concept, with its holographic brake light, and single-section roof dome fashioned by space-age materials by Swiss elves, but it also builds more accessable tuners. Take the new Cayman Imola (above), which sports a 997-Turbo-look body kit that includes a lowdown front dam, air intakes that could suck in low-flying geese, "king me" hood graphics and a high-design rear diffusor insert. It also gets headers, metal catalytic converters and stainless steel exhaust, five spoke aluminum wheels, suspension kit that's 25mm lower than stock and various manner of interior finery. Its Indy 4S sibling is Rinspeed's take on the Porsche 911 Carrera 4 & 4S. It gets the same treatment. Click through for more pics. More »

Make a Left at HMS Dorsetshire: Rinspeed Splash Breaks Record for English Channel Crossing

Frank Rinderknecht, CEO of Switzerland's bonkers tuning company, Rinspeed, recently drove the company's Splash amphibious prototype across the English Channel in 193 minutes, 47 seconds — a new world record for crossing — dodging freighters and supertankers to get 'er done. That feat landed him in the Guiness Book of World Records and solidified the company's status as being, as they say in Australia, completely arse over tit. Carscoop has the skinny. More »

Over the Over the Top: The Rinspeed zaZen

As the guy who invented Pop Rocks will tell you (from his villa in the South of France), just because you can do something, doesn't mean you have to do it, but why the hell not? Rinspeed's zaZen concept is the perfect example of that kind of thinking. A partnership with Bayer MaterialScience, which provided the outer-space plastics that make its Porsche-on-hallucinogens styling possible, the zaZen cut a compelling figure on the floor of the Palexpo Center (despite a frustrating series of display monitors that prevented unubstructed photos from all angles). In reality, Rinspeed's idea of Zen is so at odds with the actual practice of mind-clearing that shares its name that it might just be Zen-like by way of circular logic. Elsewise, it's more craziness from the guys who made being crazy the most normal thing of all. More »

More on the Rinspeed zaZen Concept

The Swiss misters at Rinspeed let fly with official photos of the concept car it plans to unveil in Geneva later this month. It's the zaZen — a Zen-themed custom based on the latest Porsche 911. As the company noted in an earlier release, the white-and-orange jobbie is ajoint project between Rinspeed and plastics supplier Bayer MaterialScience, and sports a holographic brake light, and a contoured single-section roof dome made from Bayer's Makrolon polycarbonate, which can be made transparent or opaque at the touch of a button. Click through for more pics. More »

Rinspeed to Show New Zen-themed Concept in Geneva

Those mad Swiss scientists up at Rinspeed are cooking up a new concept for the Geneva show that's Zen themed and typically high-tech. The zaZen, which appears to be a take on the Porsche 911, is yet another joint project between Rinspeed and plastics supplier Bayer MaterialScience. Among other developments, the zaZen sports a novel, holographic brake light and a contoured single-section roof dome fabricated from a polycarbonate dubbed Makrolon . That material can be made transparent or opaque at the touch of a button. Dashboard displays can be faded in and out as needed, and occupants sit in "glass-like" plastic seat shells tinted a "bright and friendly" orange. A self-healing clearcoat made up of tiny crystals protects and adds luster to the paint scheme. The Zen part comes from the company's bid to abandon preconceived notions of what a car can be. Personally, we've already spent the morning running around the house not thinking of "wolf," so we, you know, "get it." More »

Rinspeed to Show Indy-Inspired Porsche Tuner in Frankfurt

Those Swiss geniuses at Rinspeed announced they will show a new tuner Porsche at this year's Frankfurt show, the Indy, built from a Porsche 997 Carrera S and painted in American oval black-and-white (the white being metallic.) In addition to a surround of body skirting reminiscent of the 1973 RS Carrera, the Indy gets a lowered suspension setup and eight-piston brakes over copious rubber (Continental SportContact of 235/35 and 315/25). Deleted rear seats and Alcantara-topped steering wheel and shift knob complete the package. More from the Frankfurt floor. More »

What Will 007 Drive Next?

Forbes' Dan Lienert busts out with the prognostications like it ain't no thing, putting his mental weight to bear on what the next James Bond car could possibly be. His choices for 007's next whip? The Aston-Martin V8 Vantage, the Bugatti Veyron, the Bentley Azure, the new Jag XK and the amphibious Splash concept vehicle (pictured) from those head-cases over at Rinspeed. More »