Stop Suzuki if you've heard this one before

 

There's something just a tad familiar about one of the new concept cars Suzuki is showing off at this month's Tokyo Motor Show.

The X-Lander, which uses a 1.3 litre hybrid engine mated to the four-wheel-drive system of the company's venerable Jimny off-roader (which, incidentally, we can't believe is still on sale after 15 years either!) is being described by the company as being "like a fusion of off-road power and mechanical precision".

However, its formula of two seats in a cockpit open to the elements, a small-to-non-existent boot and faintly Toytown-esque styling seem more than just a little bit reminiscent of a certain sales flop offered by the company back in the dark days of the mid Nineties.

X-90, anyone?

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The Aston Martin CC100 shocks for all the right reasons

OUTRAGEOUS. Attention-grabbing. Extrovert. Not words, chances are, you’ll have been using to describe Aston Martin’s offerings of late.

The company makes some of the most graceful motoring offerings on the market today and – right from the entry-level V8 Vantage to the reinvented Vanquish – they’re not exactly lacking in thumping amounts of torque and exhaust notes so good they induce goosebumps either. They’re all things of beauty, but shocking or genuinely surprising they aren’t. Stylistically at least all of Aston’s current range harks back to the DB9 of 2004, which in turn borrowed more than a few of its good looks from 1994’s DB7. 

That’s why the company’s latest concept car, the open-top, two-seater CC100, is such a breath of fresh air. It’s inspired by the car that brought Aston one of its greatest motorsport moments – the DBR1, which won Le Mans in 1959 – and is loud, lairy and just a little bit yellow in all the right places. Everything a brand new DB9 isn’t, basically.

The thing that really excites me about the CC100, though, is that the last genuinely eyeball-grabbing Aston concept, the 1998 Project Vantage, sired the original Vanquish three years later.

Fingers crossed we get a CC100 for the road, then!

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Citroën joins the off-roader party

Citroën's DS-branded line of luxury models is about to be joined by an off-roader, if this sveltly styled concept car is anything to go by.

I'm already a bit of a fan of the French firm's upmarket offerings - the rapid DS3 Racing in particular - but this latest offering, which will be officially unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show, suggests the company is looking at grabbing a slice of the SUV cake too.

What the exact production version looks like, how much it costs and what'll it be like to drive remain as jobs for Citroën to sort out in the fullness of time, but there are one or two things I'm already sure of. Firstly, that - unlike the BMW X4 unveiled last week - it looks fabulous, although the company's claim it's got "a hynoptic stare" is just a tiny bit fatuous.

More importantly, it would be impossible for the company to make it worse than the last Citroën off-roader, the godawful C-Crosser.

Say bonjour, then, to the Citroën DS Wild Rubis...

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BMW Z4 gets the Zagato treatment

YOU know when you see the evocative slashes of the Zagato badge on a car's flanks that you're in for a bit of a visual treat.

The Italian coachbuilder has in the past treated Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin and Bentley models among others to his distinctive lines and unusual swoops, and now the Milan company's been given a BMW Z4 to play with. The striking sports car you see here, which is going on show at this year's Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, is the result.

Andrea Zagato said: "Our success in finishing the car in such a short space of time shows what is possible when two successful companies pool their resources.

“BMW is a high-achieving carmaker boasting a vast well of knowledge and technical capability in this area. When you combine that with our expertise in the creation of micro-series cars and our streamlined production processes, everything is in place to produce a beautiful model like the BMW Zagato Roadster in double-quick time”.

Among the features you won't find on an ordinary Z4 are the rear lights hidden behind a sheet of smoked black glass, the trademark Zagato 'double bubble' metalwork on the bootlid, new air outlets among the car's flanks, and a - let's say distinctive - brown and creme interior.

Among the cars Zagato has previously got the pens out for are the Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, the Alfa Romeo SZ, the Spyker C12 Zagato and the Ferrari 575 GTZ.

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