With the current uproar over burgeoning oil prices, it is
perhaps fitting that Volkswagen should choose an opportune time like this to
announce that its ‘one-liter’ concept car, which first made headlines in 2002,
and was touted to accomplish 282 miles per gallon, would finally make it to
production.
Originally slated to launch in 2012, this two-seater carbon
fiber wonder could hit the roads two years ahead of schedule, in 2010. But
instead of a single-cylinder engine that was on the original blueprint, the
production version gets a twin cylinder.
The VW 1L will also feature some kind
of hybrid drive to compensate for its not-so-ecofriendly turbodiesel engines.
Besides this, the stripped-down car’s overall design shows no major changes
from the 2002 model.
The lone passenger still sits behind the driver, and the
door opens up in the same way as in a fighter jet. And to achieve an amazing
weight of 300kg, the engineers at VW have also stripped out power steering and
power brakes, and make air-conditioning an option.
At the moment though, the
carbon fiber monocoque does not come cheap, and you’re looking at a minimum of
at least 30 grand to feel like ‘piloting’ a Top Gun.
www.volkswagen.com
via Car Magazine / Autoblog Green