2005 Mercedes-Benz Bionic Car Concept
Pretty? Well, maybe youd find it attractive if you were a boxfish, the inspiration for Mercedes-Benz Bionic Car, which was unveiled at the Washington Conference Center in Washington, DC as part of DaimlerChryslers "Impact on America" symposium in May. I was there, saw it with my own two eyes, and can attest that its about as attractive as AMCs Pacer, but stimulating a car enthusiasts visual senses was hardly the reason Mercedes-Benz put this one together.
But designing a car after a fish? Why not? Mercedes-Benzs DaimlerChrysler cousin Chrysler Group once offered a car within its now defunct Plymouth division inspired by and named after the Barracuda. American Motors Corporation (AMC), which was eventually purchased by Chrysler Group, offered sports coupe buyers the Marlin. And what about the legendary Corvette Stingray or Mako Shark concepts that preceded and followed it?
Yes, there has definitely been precedent for fish inspired automobiles, but the boxfish derived Bionic Car is different. Where the Barracuda may have included gill-like fender slats, and the Stingray a sleek profile ending in a pointed tail similar to the graceful, yet menacing looking aquatic creature, the Bionic Car appears nearly identical to its muse, even in color. And to be honest, its not the prettiest of fish.
But thats neither here nor there, because while the Stingray may have been a gorgeous automotive design it wasnt particularly aerodynamic. Thats the interesting reality modern-day aerodynamicists have discovered, that the sleek, elegant lines of early sports cars didnt necessarily cut through the wind with the same efficiency as the boxy sedans of the same era.
A good example of this is the mid 60s to early 70s Alfa Romeo Spiders, GTVs and Giulia Supers. The latter car was about as boxy as anything up to that point. I had a friend who owned a white one and we nicknamed it the fridge. You might remember it from the original Michael Caine film, The Italian Job, in which the little Alfa sedans were the blue and white police cars attempting to catch the zippy little Minis on their way out of Turin. The little box turns out to be much slipperier through the air than the sleek Italian convertible, made famous in another classic film, The Graduate, and yet again more efficient than the beautiful GTV coupe.
Back to the Bionic Car, its unique teardrop shape, pug-nosed up front, thick in the middle and canting inward towards the rear end, has proven to deliver amazingly low wind resistance: its mere 0.17 coefficient of drag would make it the most aerodynamic vehicle on the street if produced today.
The most wind-cheating car currently available in production trim is Hondas rather awkward looking Insight hybrid. With a Cd of 0.25, it is quite a bit more resistant than the Bionic Car, although the Hondas Citroen DS21-like rear fender skirts also resemble those on the new Mercedes concept.
Interestingly, if youre into such things, the fish car is also shaped a little bit like a Bell 204 / 205 H-1 Iroquois helicopter, otherwise known as the Huey, but not so much as the boxfish itself. The car doesnt include the fish and helicopters tail section, but its nose and fuselage is uncannily similar in shape to both.
Ironically, Mercedes has given the Bionic Car a helicopter-like wrap-over windshield, which looks extremely interesting as it darts to a point atop the cars roof, but in reality, combined with two additional strips of glass that extended to the rear of the car, butting up to a wrap-over glass rear liftgate, it caused an almost unbearable greenhouse effect to those inside the cabin.
That cabin was a strange place to sit inside, something I was able to do while going for a short test drive in the parking lot of Washington, DCs FedEX Field. Why strange? Well, for one, there arent any side-view mirrors. Instead, tiny cameras are positioned within the exterior of the A-pillars facing rearward, reducing drag and offering a clear view of the road behind from two monitors integrated into the cabins roof at eye level, where the tops of the A-pillars meet the side window glass. While this isnt anything particularly new for a concept, Acuras TL prototype introduced at the 2003 Detroit auto show featured a similar system, for one, its an expensive but effective method for improving aerodynamics.
Another oddity was the inclusion of a clear rubberized mesh that covered the armrests, front and back. When the engineer driving the car asked what I thought of this idea, I told him what Ill tell you, its an impractical dust and grime collector. He seemed to grunt in agreement, signaling that sometimes engineers and designers dont see eye to eye.
I have to admit that both front and rear seats were accommodating, delivering up tons of headroom and adequate leg, hip and shoulder room, while the cargo bay in the rear looked to be ideal for packing in a decent sized load.
But I suppose the practicality of a car that will never be produced is a moot point. What matters more is the bionic technology that gives the car its name, and potentially how this may be used to improve the vehicles we drive everyday.
And just what is bionic technology? Well, my first thought on the subject had me harking way back to the 70s when Lee Majors played Steve Austin in the Six Million Dollar Man, a half-man, half mechanical do-gooder, but this couldnt be what Mercedes was talking about, as theres no human element in this all-mechanical vehicle. So what is it?
Simply put, its "the science concerned with the application of data about the functioning of biological systems to the solution of engineering problems," or at least thats what Mirriam-Websters Unabridged Online has to say about it. So basically, if a fish, dog or chimpanzee inspires your car, then youre applying the science of bionics, and in effect have a bionic car.
But unlike Plymouths Barracuda or Chevys Stingray, Mercedes-Benz actually developed a Darwinian-like series of five body models that chart the automakers progression from boxfish to Bionic Car to aluminum space frame, similar to the drawing of ape transforming into man made up by the controversial scientist for introducing his theory of evolution. Of course, there was that equally controversial statement made by Lady Hope about a deathbed admission contradicting his entire theory, but none of this has anything to do with bionics or the cool little models Mercedes-Benz created to prove its "theories" of aerodynamics.
The proof of Mercedes theories, however, is in the wind tunnel test results, that cool 0.17 coefficient of drag I mentioned previously. But theres more, much more about the Bionic Car than just its slippery shape. Underneath the 13.9-foot long monobox skin, which incidentally is formed by connecting hexagonal "bony plates" together for an extremely strong structure despite an overall light weight, and reportedly act to protect the car from potential impact (also backed up by six airbags just in case) just as the real-life plates protect the Boxfish from injury, is a very strong aluminum backbone, known more commonly as a spaceframe. The entire structure is ultra-lightweight, and extremely strong, ideally suited for efficient transportation.
And Mercedes-Benz understands how to be efficient when it comes to cars, having been one of the worlds most ardent promoters of diesel power since Rudolf (not the reindeer kids) invented the oil burner. Yes, youre not alone. I first thought something as wacky looking as the Bionic Car would no doubt feature hydrogen fuel cell technology or at the very least a next-generation hybrid drivetrain, but no, instead under its guppy-like belly is a very special 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged diesel sporting 138-horsepower (121.49 cubic inches) at 4,200 rpm and 221.3 lb-ft of torque at 1,600 rpm, with an extremely high compression ratio of 18:1, and incorporating Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), a process where a gaseous or liquid reductant (most commonly ammonia or urea) is added to the flue gas stream and is absorbed onto a Zeolite or Vanadium based catalyst before the reductant reacts with NOx in the flue gas to form H2O and N2. Basically, SCR reduces emissions dramatically over conventional diesels.
How clean is it? Well, that information was hard to get, but if a engines environmental cleanliness is directly related to how efficient it is, which we know is true, how does 55 mpg strike you? Not bad. Isnt that similar to blue-sky EPA ratings for hybrids, like Toyotas Prius, Hondas Civic and that odd little Insight I mentioned before? True. Their ratings are 59 / 56, 50 / 55 and 60 / 71 mpg city / highway, respectively. But wait, the figure used for the Bionic Car is for city driving. Its much stingier with the smelly stuff when driven at a constant 90 km/h, achieving an amazing 84 mpg.
Whats more, compared to the Insight, which will take you about 11.0 seconds to pass by 60 mph, and the nearly as efficient but much more useful Prius at 10.5 seconds to 60 mph, the Bionic Car manages it in only 8.1 seconds, topping out at a very impressive 115 mph. Not bad, but then again it isnt officially federalized for crash safety in North America, or anywhere else for that matter, and doesnt feature all the niceties (like air conditioning, despite having a very slick looking automatic climate control interface integrated into its dash) that the Prius does, at least. Then again, its curb weight, at 2,789 pounds, isnt that far off the 2,888 lb Prius, and its a heck of a lot heavier than the bantam-weight Insight.
In case you were wondering, the Bionic Car reaches 167.3 inches from end to end, 71.7 inches from side to side, 63.0 inches from the base of its tires to the tip of its antenna, and features a wheelbase that spans some 101.2 inches. That makes it 7.7 inches shorter than the Prius, but on the other hand 3.7 inches wider, while its also 4.3 inches taller. As expected when comparing overall lengths, it rides upon a 5.1 inches shorter wheelbase, but passenger volume, rated at 149.0 cubic-feet, certainly didnt seem to hurt once inside, probably due to its substantial gains in width and height.
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Still, the Bionic Car isnt about to go up against the Prius on the open market anytime soon. Rather, the diesel engine and its SCR technology is, so far, the most useful component of the project, being that it is already being incorporated into commercial vehicle fleets. We may, mind you, see some of its other technologies - say the unique scale-like body shell - show up as part of future M-B models.
The Bionic Car, from a design and engineering standpoint, does stretch the boundaries of our imaginations, however, which makes it a very significant vehicle in its own right, and critical as a muse for inspiring future Mercedes-Benz project cars as well as spurring on rival automakers to reach beyond preconceived notions, to rethink transportation in a new less inhibited fashion. And for this, we owe the tiny little Boxfish our sincerest gratitude.