A Smart Car Inspired By Parkour – The Smart Parkour 341 Concept

This year, west coast automotive design studios competing in the 2011 LA Design Challenge were tasked with developing a concept based around the theme “Hollywood’s Hottest New Movie Car.” Smart explores micro car design for a film that includes characters they developed in last year’s challenge for ‘Annie get the Grannies!’

In a world of continuous change, in Cantpark City, reporter Annie Angle is beginning a new chapter in her life. Cantpark City is famous for its friendly people, the beautiful weather, but notoriously known for a lack of parking spaces. On an early Sunday morning, an article in a newspaper catches Annie’s eyes… “Smart Granny Robots missing!!!”

Annie sets off on a journey to solve the mystery of the missing Grannies and to earn her first, potentially career-making, front page news article. Her Smart 341 Parkour vehicle plays a key role in this private investigation, providing both effective transportation and favourable sleuthing capabilities.

Several features enable her to take pictures from the best possible locations. The large greenhouse gives Annie 360 degrees of visibility while travelling through the inner city. The wheels are retractable and contain impulse pads and vacuum cups. The hexagon skin around the wheelhouse is adjustable to release the wheels. The Smart has different modes: a typical drive mode, a fly mode that allows the vehicle to hover far above the streets and a climb mode that allows the vehicle to run up the walls of skyscrapers.

Follow Annie’s investigative search in Smart’s “Annie get the Grannies!” this November.

Smart is competing with five other automakers in the 2011 edition of the Design Challenge. The entries will be judged on a number of characteristics including; how the brand attributes of each vehicle concept relate to the movie plot, how the concept relates to the targeted audience, how much of a character role could the vehicle play, the uniqueness of the combination of story and vehicle concept. The winner will be announced later this month during the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show.

Designers: Sylvain Wehnert, Emiel Burki and Phillipp Haban.