The future is…. a Biohydrogen hypercar!

Bizzarrini Veleno

Bizzarrini Veleno

A Coventry University student will be exhibiting his no-holds-barred vision of the future of car design at the School of Art and Design’s Degree Show 2011 in the first week of June.

Borys Dabrowski, 21, from Poland, came up with his concept for the Bizzarrini Veleno – an environmentally-friendly, biohydrogen-powered ‘hypercar’ for the year 2030 – in tribute to the legendary Italian car designer Giotto Bizzarrini.

Bizzarrini Veleno

Bizzarrini Veleno by Borys Dabrowski

Inspiration for the look of the high-tech, low carbon vehicle came largely from nature and in particular from the amphibious poison dart frog, whose aesthetics and movement Borys studied before designing the sleek Veleno sportscar.

The Veleno features a wealth of cutting-edge technologies, including a powerful electric motor and fuel cell designed to take advantage of hydrogen generated from renewable sources such as algae and organic waste, otherwise known as biohydrogen.

The vehicle also benefits from ultra-lightweight construction, and would be manufactured using the ‘miracle material’ graphene – so called because of its revolutionary properties which makes it 200 times stronger than steel and lighter than carbon fibre.

One of the most innovative features on the car is the design of the wheels. Connected to the chassis via advanced hydraulic suspension – which can raise the whole body to make getting in and out of the car more comfortable – the Veleno’s wheels shun conventional tyres for a series of smaller, angled rubber ‘rollers’ around the circumference.

This design enables the wheel to roll forwards and backwards in the usual way, but also allows direct lateral movement for those tricky parking places.

Borys, a final year Automotive and Transport Design student at Coventry University, said, “I’ve always been a fan of Giotto Bizzarrini’s cars, so for my Degree Show project I wanted to design a vehicle which brought together the look and feel of one of his machines with the kind of futuristic technologies I think will be commonplace in 2030.

“The Veleno isn’t just a few sketches which I’ve made into model. I’ve put a lot of research into the design to prove it’s a credible concept car which could one day be produced for real.”

A one-fifth scale polyurethane foam model of the Bizzarrini Veleno will be on show at Coventry University’s School of Art and Design Degree Show in the Graham Sutherland building, Gosford Street, from Saturday 4th June to Wednesday 8th June. Entry is free of charge.