Gallery: "Made in Irvine"
1 Largely free of the strictures of specifications and the constraints of production and the market, the Advanced Design Studio in Irvine developed the concept of the "Ocean Drive" design show car together with colleagues in Yokohama, Sindelfingen and Como. The full-size model created in Sindelfingen is based on the Mercedes-Benz S 600. It is a four-door dream convertible with an extremely long wheelbase and a two-tone paint job in the tradition of the Mercedes-Benz 300d, which was built only as a special order until 1962. The clear contours of the concept car unmistakably express the design philosophy of the Mercedes-Benz brand.
2 Gorden Wagener's concept studies went from hand-drawn sketches to computer graphics and ultimately found their way into the production design of the exclusive SLR McLaren Roadster from Mercedes-Benz.
3 The robustness and modular anatomical build of a mysterious and distinctive animal species provided the idea for this concept car, named "Armadillo." The California designer Nick Garfias came up with the idea for this three-wheeler with a protective aerodynamic shell that here and there resembles a suit of armor.
4 and 5 Like the robots in the Hollywood film "Terminator," this racing car can change its exterior like quicksilver at the push of a button: long and streamlined for the freeway, short and easily maneuverable for the city. Gorden Wagener's team presented this design study last fall at the prestigious Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge.
6 * Maybach CGT: The "Maybach California Gourmet Tourer" (CGT) was drawn up by Senior Designer Andre Frey and presented in 2005 at the Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge. With this autonomous concept vehicle, which runs by itself without a driver, the team at the Advanced Design Studio in Irvine combined the luxury and comfort that the Maybach brand stands for with the very high standard of driving safety that's typical of Mercedes-Benz.
7 and 8 The "Mojave Runner" off-road vehicle has clearly borrowed a thing or two from Hollywood's factories of dreams and special effects. This highly futuristic off-road vehicle conceived by designer John Gill at the Advanced Design Studio in Irvine has wide lug-tread tires that make it ideal for desert driving. The gullwing Mojave Runner is designed for rescue missions in extreme terrain. Also on board: ultra-precise navigation equipment and the latest fuel cell technology.
9 The elegant and pioneering design of the current F 700 Daimler research car extends beyond its classy exterior. Like the car itself, the design of the engine block in the F 700 calls to mind the streamlined hydrodynamics of the underwater world. Designers in the Irvine studio created the entire engine block on computers with the special-purpose program Alias. The components were manufactured using the data supplied by the computer.
10 and 11 The designers in Irvine obviously had fun working on this concept of an off-road vehicle based on the A-Class from Mercedes-Benz. The vividly colored details include the massive bright-red shock absorbers, brake shoes and tail lamps, and the side mirrors with lemon-yellow frames. The design concept was built in clay as a model on a scale of 1:4 and painted; it remains a daily inspiration for the California design team.
12 The smart, whose design concept also originated in Irvine in 1993, pays its colorful respects in this unmistakably Californian interpretation of the "Smart Rescue V" model. For the Los Angeles Auto Show 2005, designer Hubert Lee came up with a fiery red, agile little rescue-services runabout for emergency operations on the beaches of Malibu or Monterey Bay.
