First look: Rinspeed gets transparent

RINSPEED, in collaboration with Swiss engineering specialists Esoro, will showcase its eXasis concept car at the Geneva motor show from March 6.

The "eXasis" is a drivable "glass" car with a completely transparent body and floor made of Makrolon, with styling reminiscent of early 1940s race cars –albeit with a large road clearance.

Makrolon is a brand name for a polycarbonate resin that is light weight and a high strength material. In the eXasis it is see-through. The material is used extensively in high security areas and is potentially bullet-resistant in certain applications.

The two-seater roadster is powered by a lightweight, 111kW 750cc two-cylinder turbocharged Weber engine that runs on bioethanol.

Combine that with the fact the eXasis tips the scale at just 750kg, and you have a weight-to-power ratio of just 5kg/hp.

Theoretically the eXasis can go from zero to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds and has a top speed of 210 km/h.

The two occupants sit in special seats designed in co-operation with Recaro.

Each seat consists of 12 transparent Makrolon ribs – the same number as a human being has – while the headrests and armrests are made from another transparent thermoplastic material.

KW chassis specialists have accommodated the tailor-made spring and shock absorber units vertically in the front in the partition wall and horizontally at the rear.

The tyres are Pirelli’s 22-inch high-performance P-Zeros, mounted on forged five-spoke wheels manufactured by the German wheel maker, AEZ.

Attention to detail is evident around the car as the even the wheels are decorated with transparent "inlays" of Makrolon that look like small windows.

The idea for the car came from Rinspeed’s head honcho and founder Frank Rinderknecht, who thought up the concept in collaboration with the experts from Bayer MaterialScience AG – one of the largest plastics producers in the world – to mark his company’s 30th anniversary.