Today in China Concept Cars the Guangzhou Auto Corporation (GAC) 4-Door Coupé and Cabrio-Coupé. The two cars were closely related in design and GAC called them “sister cars”.
The 4-Door Coupé debuted on the 2007 Guangzhou Auto Show and the Cabrio-Coupé on the 2008 Beijing Auto Show. On the 2009 Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC unveiled a new variant of the Cabrio-Coupé.
Both cars were developed and designed by the GAC Automotive Engineering Institute (广汽研究院邮箱系统) (GAEI), at the time GAC’s major design and development center. The center still exists, now called GAC R&D Center.
Factory photo showing the giant sunroof.
The 4-Door Coupé debuted on the 2008 Beijing Auto Show. According to a GAC brochure, the car was developed to “satisfy the needs of young white collars and well-to-do families”. There was a design philosophy too, called “customer requirement centralizing”.
GAC also called it a “four-door sports car”. It was a great looking machine, with a sporty stocky stance, with a short bonnet, a sloping windshield that morphed into the low-lying roof, with a very strong, short, and tall, rear end.
The interior was very concept-ish and clearly unfinished, but it looked nice in dark red over black. The instrument panel was made of two parts, a rounded top with a square-sized pod there inside.
Just a bit more PR-speak because I can’t get enough of it and GAC had compiled quite a lot of it for both vehicles. GAC said the 4-Door Coupe had “family genes of a safe, harmonious and pleasant romantic life experience, and adds driving pleasure that dances with nature.” Almost poetic! Much better than most car makers of the time, which merely talked about the design itself and much less about the ‘philosophy’ behind it.
The wheel design was very interesting. Basically a standard five-spoke alloy with another 5-spoke contraption bolted on top of it. The wheels of the Cabrio-Coupé had the same design.
The car had a cool door handle design. The front door handle was almost invisible, fully integrated in the window line. The rear door handle sat in the window frame itself.
Four sporty lights and big exhaust pipes.
The name of the concept in full on a badge, in two different fonts.
And yet another different font for the GAEI badge.
At the show, GAC issued a very nice 1:24 model of the 4-Door Coupé. All doors open, but the bonnet does not. I have this model in my collection, it comes with a cool box showing the car in behind a red-black background.
At the 2007 Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC said the 4-Door Coupé would be in production by 2010. The company published a detailed spec sheet:
Engine specifications: 2.4L inline four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine
Drive layout: front engine, front wheel drive
Transmission system: Six-speed manual gearbox
Maximum horsepower: 167bhp@5 ,400rpm
Maximum torque: 225Nm@4 ,000rpm
Body size: 4,705×1,930×1,400 mm
Total vehicle weight: 1,425 kg
Static acceleration: 0-100km/h 9.6 seconds
Maximum speed: 205km/h
Sadly, production never happened and the design language never quite made it into any other cars either. Too bad, GAC was far ahead of the pack with the 4-Door Coupé and at the least it could have been a nice image builder for the then still very young brand.
Time to move on to the Cabrio-Coupé. GAC handed out a brochure with great pics and text, which also showed that the cc-roof mechanism worked. There was again a lot of poetry: “It meets the requirements of family’s urban/suburban transportation of lovers’ leisurely tourism”.
And: The design of Cabrio-Coupé is inspired by “”sun, beach, and waves. The sea-blue body is like a clear sea that beats the shore. The endless waves are surging the rhythm of life and contain endless energy.”
The interior was beige with a tall uncluttered center tunnel. The dash top and door-trim top were in black. If you have read enough GAC poetry PR, please skip the next paragraph.
On the interior, GAC said: “The interior theme is based on beaches, shells and sails, which are bright and spacious and full of touch; the flowing curves, like the morning breeze; the fluttering wave patterns, condensed and stylish; the comfortable and comfortable holiday seaside, always wandering in the car. The flexible hard-top convertible system guarantees the comfort and safety of driving, just like the wings of a seagull facing the wind, interacting passionately with the sunrise, giving the driver the freedom and a sense of gratitude to fly freely.”
It was a great car to see, with a typical cc-shape. The front was just a bit sharper than on the 4-Door Coupé. The Cabrio-Coupé was really a concept only. There were never any plans for production and GAC didn’t release any spec sheets.
Most cars with a retractable hardtop suffer from an ugly side profile, cause by the rear being too high, with the extra space needed for the roof. Somehow, GAC managed to keep the car’s profile very neat and flat.
The Cabrio-Coupé had the same wheel design as the 4-Door Coupé, albeit with an extra line of nuts on the inside of the rim, making for a sporty yet a bit messy look.
The rear light design was very neat. White visors with sculpted lines for the various functions. The exhaust pipes seems a tad too small.
Cabrio-Coupé badge.
Even though it was just a concept the retractable cc roof was fully functional, and the roof panel was a giant glass sunroof.
Last piece of PR poetry for this article: “The flexible hard-top convertible system guarantees the comfort and safety of driving, just like the wings of Haiou, interacting passionately with the sunrise, giving the driver the freedom and a sense of gratitude to fly freely.”
The roof mechanism consisted of only two large parts, which easily folded into the trunk. A very nice car but everybody thought it would be moved to a factory museum fairly quickly. But that wasn’t what happened.
Instead, on the about half a year later, the Cabrio-Coupé made a come-back on the 2008 Guangzhou Auto Show. The blue color of beaches and waves was gone, replaced by a new shade of matte light brown. Very classy.
The wheels also turned into brown.
And happily the car stood close enough to the crowd so folks could actually see the interior from up close. The instrument binnacle seems very large, enough space for lots of instruments. The brown-beige steering wheel is classy too.
Interestingly, GAC also changes the Cabrio-Coupé badge! It had colors now, with the word Cabrio partially in red.
I haven’t seen any photos of the blue car with the roof closed, but happily there are some pics of the top-up brown car. Again with great looks, the lines are clean and undisturbed. Could GAC have made it work in the real world? Technically yes, I guess. But at the time, convertible cars were generally unpopular in China, and that likely killed all prospects for a production run.
Amazingly, GAC unveiled another three (!) concept cars around the same time, the GAC Vip-lounge, the GAC AHEV, and the GAC AEV. More on those in a later post!
Sources: Sina, Sina, Sina, BestMotoring, BestMotoring, BestMotoring, Sohu, WAutom, Xcar.
They look really cool for the era! Especially the CC!