WTCC Ultra at the Paris Motor Show

Crowds are racing to the Chevrolet stand at the Paris Motor Show after the company pulled the wraps off its new concept car.

The WTCC Ultra is the vision of a new generation of touring car, and celebrates Chevrolet’s most recent victory in the series, after British driver Rob Huff beat all comers in the Czech Republic earlier this month.

The bold panels of the extremely-styled body, finished in striking ‘Stealth Blue’ paint, are made of glassfibre and carbon-fibre laminate to keep weight to a minimum, while inside the car is every inch a bespoke racing car, with rubberised black paint on the dashboard, which is as ergonomically laid out as on a production car.

Design chief David Lyon said: “We wanted to explore the concept of a Chevrolet muscle car reinvented for Europe. The Ultra is a car that celebrates Chevy’s racing heritage with a very forward looking design.”

But unlike most styling studies, the WTCC Ultra is a fully working vehicle, powered by a 190PS common-rail diesel engine based on the unit that’s soon to debut in the all-new Captiva SUV.

The car is also as global as the Chevrolet brand, with engineers and designers from all over the world working as a team to bring it to production. The initial concept and early design work was carried out in South Korea at the GM DAT Advanced Design Studio, while the dynamic look was the responsibility of 25-year old Ewan Kingsbury – a graduate of Coventry University now working for GM’s Australian styling department.

Colour and materials design was the work of Breony Crittenden, also of GM Australia, while the design was coordinated by engineers in the USA and Switzerland. Final construction of the prototype took place in Japan, with the help of British motorsport specialists Ray Mallock Ltd, the technical partner of the Chevy WTCC Touring Car team.