North. American concepts

Cars and car-based crossovers took the concept-vehicle spotlight this year at the 2004 North American International Auto Show in Detroit last month.

The Ford Shelby Cobra concept, like the legendary 1960s original, features a utilitarian body tightly wrapped around a race-bred engine and chassis. “We let the powertrain, the space frame, and the suspension dictate the architecture for the body,” said Richard Hutting, Chief Designer. “The result was a shape that does justice to the original Shelby Cobra, but doesn't share a single dimension or proportion with it.”

The Ford Shelby Cobra concept does without side mirrors. A trio of video cameras-mounted high in each A-pillar and at the center of the windshield frame-create real-time color images that are stitched together on a center-mounted liquid-crystal display to form a 180° panorama of the competition.