Omc Corbra Upper Unit Gearcase on 2040-parts.com

Umea Olme Spyder project

While Swedish automaker Saab was going through tumultuous times and Geely was in the process of buying Volvo from Ford, first year MA students in Transportation Design at Sweden's Umea Institute of Design were busy creating a one-off roadster for an independent car maker: the Olme Spyder. Created in collaboration with Ove Bengtsson, an engineer with a personal passion for building his own vehicles, the students were asked to design their own interpretation of a progressive and innovative roadster, developing the concept from a sketch into a full-scale model. Based on an Opel Agila donor car, the concept's 650kg steel monocoque chassis was created by Bengtsson himself to accommodate a mid-mounted engine.

Concept Car of the Week: Renault Vel Satis (1998)

The approach to the design of top end models varies greatly depending on the manufacturer's heritage and the cultural differences of each country. It might be a conventional combination of wood and leather for some, power and technology for others, but it is generally packaged into a three-box four-door sedan or two-door fastback. Renault on the other hand had a much more cutting edge vision of what a luxury automobile could be.

Tesla to work with others, Roadster priced at £92k

By Ben Oliver Motor Industry 19 August 2008 09:21 Tesla has confirmed that it is working with several major car makers to develop affordable, fully-electric city cars, with the first going on sale as early as 2010. The established car makers will use the experience Tesla has gained developing the high-performance, £92,000 Roadster as a short cut to  getting their own electric cars on sale. 'Smaller Teslas in the pipeline' Tesla plans to have its Model S five-seat electric hatchback on sale by 2010 in both the United States and Europe.