For the past eight years, the LA Auto Show has been playing host to a design contest aimed at automaker design studios. Each year, a new Design Challenge theme is chosen with the studios showcasing their conceptual ideas during the press days of the show.
For 2011, the motorshow organizers are asking six automotive design studios from around the world, including Honda, Hyundai, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz, Smart and Maybach to come up with Hollywood’s next hottest movie car.
The winner will be announced on November 17 during the Design Los Angeles conference at the L.A. Auto Show.
Look at this year's contestants.
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| Honda IH (Intelligent Horse) |
Honda Research and Development Americas, Inc. A futuristic action-adventure, Honda takes you hundreds of years into the future after a catastrophic event wiped out society as we know it in High Noon, featuring the Honda IH (Intelligent Horse).
A vehicle that serves as a companion and protector in the inhospitable and lonely environment, the Honda IH was inspired by the legend and material remains of an ancient creature called the horse and brought to life with advanced technology. At High Noon the dangerous environment is apparent when there is a showdown between IH’s competing for fuel and other resources, leaving the audience to question, who will prevail?
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| Hyundai Stratus |
Hyundai Design North America – Following the immortal daughter of vampire parents through the most dangerous places in the world to stop the negative effects of communism, Hyundai’s Countess of Siberia features the Hyundai Stratus Sprinter multi-purpose vehicle and the DB Atlant Airship.
Serving as the Countess Elena’s homebase, both vehicles have a magical stealth force that renders them invisible during daylight, only to reappear after dark. The vehicles contain the most modern features and have light combat capabilities that help on her quest of justice.
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| Mercedes Silver Arrow |
Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc.: Advanced Design Center California – In a futuristic society of increased artificial intelligence, two enlightened crash test mannequins, Hans05 and Franz02, show that they are no dummies when it comes to recognizing a potential catastrophe and decide to take matters into their own hands.
Using the Mercedes Silver Arrow, reminiscent of the W125 series, a Silberpfeil racecar of the late 1930s and the Uhlenhaut SLR from the 50s, Hans05 and Franz02 lead the relentless and evil ‘Dr. Barrier’ on an action-packed thrill ride through the past and future of transportation.
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| Smart 341 Parkour |
Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Germany – In a city famous for its friendly people and beautiful weather, but notoriously known for a lack of parking spaces, reporter Annie Angle is on a mission to write her first, potentially career-making, front page news article. On an early Sunday morning, an article in a newspaper catches Annie’s eye…“Smart Granny Robots Missing!”
Using her Smart 341 Parkour and its three different modes – a typical drive mode, a fly mode that allows the vehicle to hover far above the streets and a climb mode that allows the vehicle to run up the walls of skyscrapers – Annie sets off on an investigation to discover the missing link for her journalistic masterpiece.
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| Subaru HORIZON. |
Subaru Design Tokyo Studio – 200 years after the Earth stopped rotating, the Earth was split into two, distinctly different hemispheres – the Daysphere and the Nightsphere. Humans have been living in a highly-developed civilization in the Nightsphere, away from the sun’s harmful electromagnetic waves.
However, the fuel for the power generation system, a rare crystallized mineral, was running out. Known to be found only in the pole of the Daysphere, a place from which no human has ever come back alive, a team of four ventures to the other end of the world in the Ultra Subaru HORIZON.
The HORIZON is specially developed to withstand the strong electromagnetic field, chemical imbalances, scorching heat and raging storms of the Daysphere. Follow Subaru in this action thriller, Divided.
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