Toroidion 1MW Concept
The all-new Toroidion 1MW concept car was designed,
developed and built entirely in Finland. At a full
megawatt (1,341 hp), it's one of the most powerful supercars, period. Besides
sheer power, the car showcases some interesting technologies with a wide range
of potential applications, from a scalable powertrain to a fast-swap battery
system.
Toroidion was founded in 2011 with the mission of
designing a fully electric powertrain capable of competing in the world-famous
24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, where total driving distances of more than
3,000 miles (4,830 km) are the norm.To get around that inherent shortcoming, Toroidion relies on a
rapid-swap high-capacity battery that is "as easily replaced in the
pit-lane as it is in the home garage." It doesn't provide any further details
about the battery pack or the swapping system, outside of saying the pack,
along with the car itself, is built to a lightweight standard.
Toroidion
has driven the 1MW out of the shadows to give us a complete look at its
styling. Frankly, it might have been better off keeping us in suspense until it
could really wow us with performance details because the design, unlike the potential
of the powertrain, is rather flat. The 1MW concept looks as though Toroidion
mashed elements of a number of existing car designs, then rounded out all the
edges to make it "modern" and called it a day.
The 1MW flashes a profile that looks very C5
Corvette, only with a cartoon-like, too-small-for-its-body cabin. The hood and
front-end are a bit better, and if we're being generous, we'd point out that
the rounded, flush-with-hood headlamps are somewhat reminiscent of a Porsche
928 or Lamborghini Miura. As the
over-rounding of the 1MW's edges and surfaces leaves an "interesting show
car, would not drive in public" feel, not dissimilar from the Ermini
Seiottosei. There is a point where three-dimensional curves overwhelm a car
design, and the 1 MW resides well beyond that point.
When looking the 1MW square in the face, the beady
eyes and small oval grill lack the confident strength that any megawatt car
should have. The Toriodion looks best when viewed from the other end; we like
the way the large, smooth fender muscles flow into the digital display-like
rear fascia. Unfortunately, a nice rear-end isn't enough to save the design.
The car's interior is equally uninspired. We like
the idea of a minimalistic, race-inspired cabin construction in theory, but in
this case it feels like they slapped some aluminum across the dashboard and
center console and surrounded the steering wheel with a bunch of toggle
switches that may or may not actually do anything. We like the curvy, skeletal
metal handles on the butterfly doors, but otherwise, it's a cold,
underdeveloped collection of race-inspired parts and materials.
