New car news

10 February 2011 - 14:40

Renault Captur concept breaks cover

If the DeZir was the steamy, passionate summer love affair, this is the wife-and-two-kids aftermath: meet the Renault Captur.

Billed as the second stage in the company's new brand identity, the Captur follows the ‘falling in love' passion of the Renault DeZir with ‘two people exploring the world around them'. Which means heading off to Ikea to purchase some quality flat-pack before babies occur.

See more pics of the Renault Captur concept

Renault's designers apparently envisaged a sprinter on the starting blocks when drawing the Captur, with the final design referencing ‘protective gear used in radical sports'. Like helmets.

It gets the DeZir's face and adds the now ubiquitous coupe-SUV body, ushering in some practicality. 22-inch rims, ‘butterfly' doors and a removable hard-top make it an interesting design, if a little terrifying.

The interior was designed around a so-called ‘network of stretched elastic ropes', with the rear composed of three layers of rope, adjustable like a hammock, to provide a relaxation area, reconfigurable storage or two full-sized seats.

The Captur gets a 1.6-litre twin-turbo 100kW engine that will eventually replace the 1.9 dCi, with a claimed 99g/km of CO2, together with a mechanical self-locking differential and Renault's ‘Visio-System'. This is a windscreen-mounted camera feeding info into the centrally mounted screen to help the driver, like traffic, obstructions, ladyfolk...

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