Volkswagen Orbit (1986)

Last updated
Volkswagen Orbit
Overview
Production1986
Designer Italdesign Giugiaro
Body and chassis
Layout Front-engine, four-wheel-drive
Powertrain
Engine 1,781 cc (108.7 cu in) I4 SOHC
Dimensions
Length3,985 mm (156.9 in)

The Volkswagen Orbit is a concept car by styling house Italdesign shown at the 1986 Turin Motor Show. It shouldn't be confused with another Volkswagen Orbit concept shown in 1991. [1]

Contents

Overview

Background

The Orbit was a further refinement of previous Italdesign concepts such as the Alfa Romeo New York Taxi (1976), Lancia Megagamma (1978), Capsula (1982) and Together (1984). The concept was built on a Volkswagen Golf Mk2 platform, specifically the new Syncro. [2] The goal was to produce a car around 4 metres in length. The concept was 15cm taller than the existing Volkswagen Golf and featured a large amount of glass. [3]

The Orbit would be developed further into the Italdesign Machimoto, [4] shown the same year. [5]

Interior

Inside it featured a unique digital instrument cluster. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Beetle</span> Small family car (1938–2003)

The Volkswagen Beetle, officially the Volkswagen Type 1, is a small car produced by the German company Volkswagen from 1938 to 2003. It is one of the most iconic cars in automotive history, recognised for its distinctive shape. Its production period of 65 years is the longest of any single generation of automobile, and its total production of over 21.5 million is the most of any car of a single platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Scirocco</span> Motor vehicle

The Volkswagen Scirocco is a three-door, front-engine, front-wheel-drive, sport compact hatchback manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen in two generations from 1974 to 1992 and a third generation from 2008 until 2017. Production ended without a successor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giorgetto Giugiaro</span> Italian automobile designer (born 1938)

Giorgetto Giugiaro is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont. Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002. He was awarded the Compasso d'Oro industrial design award six times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SEAT Ibiza</span> Motor vehicle

The SEAT Ibiza is a supermini car that has been manufactured by Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since 1984. It is SEAT's best-selling car. The Ibiza is named after the Spanish island of Ibiza and was the second SEAT model to be named after a Spanish location, after the SEAT Málaga. It was introduced at the 1984 Paris Motor Show as the first car developed by SEAT as an independent company, although it was designed by SEAT in collaboration with well-known firms including Italdesign, Karmann, and Porsche.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Santana</span> Motor vehicle

The Volkswagen Santana is a nameplate used by Volkswagen for various sedans and station wagons since 1983. The first generation is based on the second-generation Volkswagen Passat (B2). It was introduced in 1981 while production started in 1983 for China. The use of the "Santana" badge rather than "Passat" echoes the use of different names for the sedan versions of the Polo (Derby) and Golf (Jetta).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneva International Motor Show</span> Annual Swiss auto show

The Geneva International Motor Show is an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva.

Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. is a design and engineering company and brand based in Moncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best known for its automobile design work, Italdesign also offers product design, project management, styling, packaging, engineering, modeling, prototyping and testing services to manufacturers worldwide. As of 2010, Italdesign employs 800 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Eos</span> Motor vehicle

The Volkswagen Eos is a compact two-door, four passenger convertible manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen from 2006-2016 — noted for its five-section hardtop retractable roof which itself featured an independently operable glass sunroof. VW marketed the body configuration as a CSC (coupe-sunroof-convertible).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter de Silva</span> Italian car designer

Walter Maria de Silva is an Italian car designer and former head of Volkswagen Group Design, until 2015. Since beginning his car design career in 1972 as trainee car designer for Fiat's Style Centre. De Silva has also worked as a designer at I.DE.A Institute, and as head of design for Alfa Romeo, SEAT and the 'Audi brand group'. He is presently President of the Design Studio Walter De Silva & Partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen W12</span> Motor vehicle

The Volkswagen W12 was a series of concept cars created by Volkswagen Passenger Cars in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lamborghini Calà</span> Concept car

The Lamborghini Calà was a concept car designed for Lamborghini by Italdesign Giugiaro. It was first shown at the 1995 Geneva Motor Show. It was a completely functional prototype that never made it into production. Its name was derived from the Piedmontese dialect of Northern Italy and meant “look, over there!”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Golf Mk5</span> Fifth generation of Golf compact car

The Volkswagen Golf Mk5 is a compact car/small family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen, as the fifth generation of the Golf in three- or five-door hatchback and a five-door station wagon (2007–2009) configurations, as well as the successor to the Golf Mk4. Using the Volkswagen Group A5 (PQ35) platform, the Mk5 debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October 2003 and went on sale in Europe for the 2004 model year. While marketed as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada, the GTI model in these countries was marketed simply as the Volkswagen GTI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Golf Mk3</span> Third generation of Golf compact car

The Volkswagen Golf Mk3 is a medium-sized compact family car. It's the third generation of the Volkswagen Golf and the successor to the Volkswagen Golf Mk2, which was produced by Volkswagen from August 1991 to 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Golf Mk2</span> Second generation of Golf compact car

The Volkswagen Golf Mk2 is a hatchback, the second generation of the Volkswagen Golf and the successor to the Volkswagen Golf Mk1. It was Volkswagen's highest volume seller from 1983 and ended in (German) production in late 1992, to be replaced by the Volkswagen Golf Mk3. The Mk2 was larger than the Mk1; its wheelbase grew slightly, as did exterior dimensions. Weight was up accordingly by about 120 kg (260 lb). Exterior design, developed in-house by VW design director Schäfer, kept the general lines of its Giugiaro-designed predecessor, but was slightly more rounded. All told, about 6.3 million second-generation Golfs were built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Golf Mk1</span> First generation of Golf compact car

The Volkswagen Golf Mk1 is the first generation of a small family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen. It was noteworthy for signalling Volkswagen's shift of its major car lines from rear-wheel drive and rear-mounted air-cooled engines to front-wheel drive with front-mounted, water-cooled engines that were often transversely-mounted.

The Turin Motor Show was an auto show held annually in Turin, Italy. The first official show took place between 21 and 24 April 1900, at the Castle of Valentino, becoming a permanent fixture in Turin from 1938 having shared it with Milan and Rome until that time. From 1972, the show was held biannually and in 1984, it moved into Fiat's shuttered Lingotto factory.

FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between FAW Group and Volkswagen Group which manufactures Audi and Volkswagen marque passenger cars for sale in China. It was founded on 6 February 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Group MQB platform</span> Motor vehicle platform

The Volkswagen Group MQB platform is the company's strategy for shared modular design construction of its transverse, front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout automobiles. It was first introduced in the Volkswagen Golf Mk7 in late 2012. Volkswagen spent roughly $8bn developing this new platform and the cars employing it. The platform underpins a wide range of cars from the supermini class to the mid size SUV class. MQB allows Volkswagen to assemble any of its cars based on this platform across all of its MQB ready factories. This allows the Volkswagen group flexibility to shift production as needed between its different factories. Beginning in 2012, Volkswagen Group marketed the strategy under the code name MQB, which stands for Modularer Querbaukasten, translating from German to "Modular Transversal Toolkit" or "Modular Transverse Matrix". MQB is one strategy within VW's overall MB program which also includes the similar MLB strategy for vehicles with longitudinal engine orientation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen Auto 2000</span> Motor vehicle


The Volkswagen Auto 2000 is a concept car first shown by German car company Volkswagen in 1981. It was part of a German government-sponsored program to develop cars for the year 2000. Volkswagen's prototype was joined by efforts from Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and the University Working Group HAG (Hochschularbeitsgemeinschaft). As with the other Auto 2000 concepts, Volkswagen's car focused on fuel economy through the use of efficient engines and streamlining, and many of its features were to end up in series production.

The Italdesign Machimoto was a concept car by styling house Italdesign shown at the 1986 Turin Motor Show.

References

  1. "VW (D) Orbit 1991" (in English and German). Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  2. "Back to the Future With Exclusive ItalDesign Concepts From 1986". dyler.com. March 21, 2022. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  3. "Volkswagen. Les concept-cars insolites de Wolfsburg". www.largus.fr (in French). August 14, 2021. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  4. "The brilliant, beautiful cars of Italdesign". Autocar. October 24, 2019. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  5. "Project: Orbit - 1986" . Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  6. "The 15 Weirdest Concept Car Interiors In Automotive History". Car Throttle. 15 August 2017. Retrieved 2024-05-07.