Peugeot's new playthings

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Peugeot calls them "City Toyz" - funky cars of tomorrow. Their names are fun, too: "vroomster, e-doll, bobslid, kart up."

The French carmaker built them to promote its worldwide design competition, an internet-based challenge to anyone over the age of 14 who doesn't work for the organisers or a carmaker.

The brief is to design the car they would like to be driving in 2020. The competition is on the website www.peugeot.com and is open until the end of December.

Judges at the company's headquarters in Paris will spend January and February narrowing down the finalists and the winning design will be announced at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

Peugeot will then spend six months building a full-scale model before unveiling it at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September next year.

Entries may be submitted only via the internet. Participants may do as many designs as they like, but each one must be accompanied by text explaining their concept.

The recreational City Toyz were dreamed up by designers at Peugeot's style centre. The "vroomster" is a tandem vehicle 3.16m long, 1.36m high, 1.52m wide and with a wheelbase of 2.1m.

The passenger sits behind the driver and both are sheltered by an elongated windscreen. The fuel tank is situated between the driver's legs and steering is by handlebar-type wheel.

The flashy green body and black interior is made of carbon-fibre with foam, and each seat is fitted with three-point seatbelts.

The running gear comes from the 206 hatchback, including a twin-cam, 16-valve engine producing a sparkling 80kW.

The "e-doll" is a battery-powered runabout capable of carrying three occupants side-by-side. A clip-on shopping trolley is integrated at the rear of the vehicle.

The e-doll is 2.5m long, 1.29m high and 1.54m wide and its carbon-fibre body includes a one-piece canopy forming the windscreen, roof and rear window.

The side doors are open to the world and the driver, seated centrally, steers using scooter handlebars containing a starter button, twist-grip throttle, brake controls and twin-dial instrument panel.

The front suspension is a variation of the MacPherson system and the rear axle has two control arms containing two electric motors linked to a belt-drive transmission driving twin 10-inch wheels.

Peugeot describes the e-doll as "street-wise with a strong personality."

The "bobslid" is a low-slung electric car with four-wheel-drive and three seats. It is 2.2m long, 1.690m high and 1.100m wide and, like the other City Toyz, is made of carbon-fibre.

Driver and passengers sit one behind the other on the left side of the vehicle. On the right side is storage.

The canopy is a hinged glass bubble which closes flush with the windscreen. It can slide backwards to provide a sunroof and side windows all at once.

The car is driven by four wheels, the hub of each containing 10 small 500W electric motors.

When one motor turns, a cog at the end of each driveshaft engages the notched, crown-wheel-type rim. The next motor then comes into play and so on. Available power is 5kW at each wheel, or 20kW overall.

Steering is controlled by two joysticks mounted on a rudder bar between the driver's legs. But the system doesn't point the wheels - rather it varies their rotational speed like a bulldozer does its tracks. Slow the left wheels and the vehicle turns left; slow the right and it turns right.

Peugeot describes the "kart up" as a "little bombshell." It is right on the button because the carbon-fibre, lightweight two-seater is powered by a V6 engine producing 152kW, or 210 bhp.

It is 3.28m long, 1.08m high and 1.52m wide. Driver and passenger sit almost at ground level and are protected by a bubble-like glass windscreen/roof which tips forwards when opened. Suspension consists of double triangles front and rear, and the east-west mounted engine and gearbox sit in front of the rear drive.

A feature of the kart up is its new headlight technology. Each headlight contains a lamp which sends a vertical beam of light to a mirror, which in turn redirects the beam forward through a lens on to the area to be illuminated. Peugeot says a choice of settings means very little light depth is required.

The kart up is finished in a deep metallic grey, tipped with green at the front. As it extends rearwards, its colour changes gradually to a pearly white.