{"id":2115576,"date":"2026-08-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2115576"},"modified":"2026-08-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:00:00","slug":"not-daft-enough-this-transforming-roadster-concept-was-a-fail-and-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2115576","title":{"rendered":"‘Not daft enough’: this transforming roadster concept was a fail, and here’s why"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The problem with the Presto wasn\u2019t that it was too daft. It wasn\u2019t daft enough. The unmistakable handiwork of the Swiss mavericks at Rinspeed, it attempted to solve that age-old riddle of \u2018small car, easy to park\/big car, fits more people\u2019 with the aid of an ingenious extending wheelbase. Yep, it stretched.<\/p>\n

A central electric motor elongated the Presto\u2019s floorpan on the fly, transforming it from two-seat roadster into capacious four-seat roadster at the push of a button.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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FOTC has no issue with this. FOTC is all here for transforming cars. The problem with the Presto was that it just didn\u2019t transform enough. It extended by a grand total of 750mm, thus in fact transforming from \u2018two-seater\u2019 into a \u2018two-seater with small amount of space behind for very uncomfortable rear passengers\u2019.<\/p>\n

No doubt there were solid technical reasons for such a modest elongification. But the Presto didn\u2019t need to worry about solid technical reasons. It was a concept car! It was never going to be built! If FOTC\u2019s designing a transforming concept car, it\u2019s designing one that transforms from Smart Fortwo to Taylor Swift tour bus. Realistic? Physically possible? Doesn\u2019t matter! It\u2019s a concept!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Further proof: the Presto\u2019s mooted powerplant wasn\u2019t an onboard plutonium reactor or even sonorous V8. It was a clattery 1.7 diesel. Again, it\u2019s a concept, lads. If we\u2019d wanted disappointing early Noughties realism, we\u2019d have gone to Vauxhall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The problem with the Presto wasn\u2019t that it was too daft. It wasn\u2019t daft enough. The unmistakable handiwork of the Swiss mavericks at Rinspeed, it attempted to solve that age-old riddle of \u2018small car, easy to park\/big car, fits more people\u2019 with the aid of an ingenious extending wheelbase. Yep, it stretched. A central electric […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2115576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2115576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2115576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2115576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2115576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}