By Liz White, UT staff
Geneva, Switzerland-Rinspeed premiered its za-Zen concept car at the Geneva Motor Show, 28 Feb.
Representing Swiss designer Frank Rinderknecht's vision of the car of the future, the vehicle was produced in cooperation with major plastics producer Bayer MaterialScience AG. Za-Zen features many of BMS's materials, including a polyurethane clear coat for the striking white coating of the model. It is a "technical revolution" in car manufacture, claims the developer, with the transparent backlite being turned into a luminous holographic area. "As if from nowhere, the third brake light shines out of what looks like a floating transparent hardtop," Rinspeed says.
The entire roof dome down to the belt line is made of Bayer's transparent Makrolon polycarbonate. A glass-clear elastic sealant from Revoflex AG has been used to achieve an optimum joint with the body. Rinspeed says the striking hardtop is lightweight and also appears to float airily above the body. It weighs many kilos less than glass-"not that it would be possible to make it from glass in the first place," the developer points out. And, continues Rinspeed, the lightness of the roof construction ties in with the surface coating of the zaZen"-a white mineral shade based on the Bayer raw materials, Desmodur and Desmophen. "Millions of tiny precious Swarovski crystals" in the coating are protected by a self-healing polyurethane clear coat, Rinspeed's announcement said.
This crystal skin" finish was developed and applied by Austrian surface coating specialists, Karl Seelos. More details are available on the Rinspeed website http://www.rinspeed.com/pages/cars/zazen/pre-zazen.htmPhoto: Swarovski crystal trim matches the PU coated crystal-containing white body coat of the futuristic za-Zen concept car"
