If I told you that the 2017 North American International Auto Show would play host to one of the most confusing concept offerings of the year, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, right? Well, I don’t exactly know what VLF Automotive was thinking here, but rest assured, the X-Series Concept has that spot all to itself.
We admittedly didn’t know too much about the concept when we first saw the monstrosity in Detroit, but more details about the X-Series have since come to light and but very little of it still looks and sounds right to us, proving once and for all that just because you have the capacity to build and develop an automotive prototype, that doesn’t mean you should do it if it’s going to end up looking like this.
To be fair, the X-Series does have a few notable qualities about it, even though the use of the word “few” is a stretch in itself. It’s actually based on the Chevrolet Colorado and has the pickup’s stock 3.6-liter V-6 engine that’s good for 306 horsepower and 275 pound-feet of torque. It has a ground clearance of 11.5 inches and departure angles of 44.7 and 48 degrees, respectively. That tells you that the X-Series is a vehicle you’d like to have in case there are natural calamities like floods in your locale. But other than that, the X-Series is a complete waste of time, deserving at least of being named one of the worst debuts in Detroit.
You don’t need to be deeply entrenched in the auto industry to know that the design of the X-Series is largely inspired by the Hummer H2, the gas-guzzling marauder of an SUV that actually gained popularity a decade ago before meeting its demise in 2010 because, well, it just sucked in so many ways. Apparently, the people behind VLF Automotive didn’t get that memo, not to mention the current roadmap of the auto industry that’s embracing the idea of alternative energy sources like never before.
Speaking of which, it comes as a great surprise that the X-Series actually comes from a company backed by Henrik Fisker, the same individual who penned beauties like the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin Vantage and was the driving force behind the Fisker Karma, one of the industry’s first full-fledged premium-plug in range-extended electric luxury sports sedan. For him to go from all of that to the VLF Automotive X-Series is a huge head-scratcher, to say the least.
Continue after the jump to read the full story.
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2ioiBTt
No comments:
Post a Comment