+ Click to Enlarge CHEV GOES EXTREME: This is the WTCC Ultra concept, described as "the vision of a new generation of touring car", at the Paris auto show.

September 29, 2006

Paris, France - Chevrolet has pulled the covers off its WTCC Ultra concept, described as "the vision of a new generation of touring car", at the Paris auto show.

The company adds that it is a celebration of its most recent racing victory when British driver Rob Huff won the WTCC race in the Czech Republic earlier this month.

The bold panels of the extreme body - the colour is listed as Stealth Blue' - are glass fibre and carbon-fibre laminate and the cabin, says Chev, is all racing car with rubberised black paint on the fascia.

Design chief David Lyon said: "We wanted to explore the concept of a Chevrolet muscle car reinvented for Europe. The Ultra is a car that celebrates Chevy’s racing heritage with a very forward-looking design."

But, unlike most styling studies, the car a fully working vehicle powered by a 150kW, common-rail diesel engine based on the unit that’s soon to debut in the all-new Captiva SUV.

The car is also as global: engineers and designers from all over the world worked as a team to bring it to production.

The initial concept and early design work was carried out in South Korea at the GM DAT Advanced Design Studio while the dynamic look was the responsibility of 25-year old Ewan Kingsbury at GM’s Australian styling department.

Colour and materials design was the work of Breony Crittenden, also of GM Australia, while the design was co-ordinated by engineers in the USA and Switzerland.

Final construction of the prototype took place in Japan with the help of British motorsport specialists Ray Mallock, the technical partner of the Chevy WTCC Touring Car team.