by Robert Lewis (30 Aug 01)

Electro-hydraulic gullwing doors, seats that adjust their height by air pressure, systems called Simplexity and Touch Design, and a stated desire to combine "beauty with an aura of top performance, control and serenity" - it must be a Renault concept car. Talisman is the latest design by Patrick le Quément's studio, and it will make its debut at the Frankfurt Show.

This 4.5-litre V8-engined GT will never reach production status. But, as with so many Renault show cars, it's all the Champs-Elysées to a glass of vin ordinaire that some of the individual design elements will eventually appear in showroom cars, as was the case with the Avantime and Vel Satis. Le Quement says: "Talisman clearly illustrates an idealized vision of how we imagine tomorrow's car interior should be."

Partly, it seems, the interior should look like home. Home furnishing is the idea behind having a red leather strip which winds its mazy way through the passenger cabin, appearing in different areas as the floor, the front seats and "the opening movement of the dashboard".

The floor as the seats? In a manner of speaking. The seats are formed of a carbon structure, and they're fixed in place. So the wing-shaped fascia and the pedal unit - linked together - have to be moved instead. That's done by an electric motor. The only adjustment possible to the seats themselves is a change in height, controlled by air-filled bags.

The Simplexity thing is largely a matter of "bare essentials" concealing some very high-tech equipment. Talisman's fascia, for instance, is simple looking, but there are clear crystal-disc instrument dials, on which the engraved markings "appear to be suspended in mid-air". There's also a TAG Heuer clock.

Filming Behind

This is another concept car which uses cameras to give a panoramic view to the rear, playing it on a fascia screen also used for the navigation and information systems.

Touch Design? This will definitely be fed into future Renault showroom cars. It's a matter of "sensual and emotional ergonomics", where the idea is to make control switches and so on, not just tactile but also adaptable in shape, almost to the extent that you want to fiddle with them. So the soft leather around the gear selector, and the switches, has a supple material underneath, intended to yield slightly under the pressure or a finger. There's similar thinking on steering wheel design.

External styling details are also striking. The windscreen extends rearwards into a pair of glass roof strips which come together again as the V-shaped rear window.

Altogether, Talisman looks like the kind of concept car to which Renault may well devote, as it has done with previous designs, a whole book. And the studio hasn't raided an English dictionary to find a suitable name. Talisman is the same word in French.

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