The Bertone Birusa is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

built in 2003 by

Bertone Gruppo Bertone, commonly known as Bertone, was an Italian industrial design company which specialized in Automotive design, car styling, coachbuilder, coachbuilding and Contract manufacturer, manufacturing. It was also a Automotive industry in ...

and based on the

BMW Z8 The BMW Z8 is a Roadster (automobile), roadster produced by German automotive manufacturer BMW from 1998 to 2003. The Z8 was developed under the codename "E52" between 1993 and 1999, through the efforts of a design team led by Chris Bangle from ...

. It debuted at the 2003 Geneva Motor Show. It was intended solely as a styling exercise and never went into production, neither intended to be supplied to any automobile producer, neither

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

, just a show car to gain projects.

Specifications

The Birusa uses the Z8's aluminum chassis, as well as its 4.9-liter DOHC V8 engine that produces at 6600 rpm and of torque mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. It features power assisted, roof hinged carbon fibre

gull-wing door In the automotive industry, a gull-wing door, also known as a falcon-wing door, McLaren anhedral door, or an up-door, is a car door that is hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, first as a race car in ...

s, as well as a custom

Bose Bose may refer to: * Bose (crater), a lunar crater. * ''Bose'' (film), a 2004 Indian Tamil film starring Srikanth and Sneha * Bose (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) * Bose (given name), a given name * Bose, Italy, a ''fra ...

sound system designed especially for the Birusa with 11 speakers and 2 subwoofers. The Birusa had many new technological advances such as a glass sunroof that filters out 95% of UV rays from the passengers of the car and a multilingual voice control system that allows the driver to control many features. It also was equipped with a night vision system. The Birusa has a large moonroof which doubles as its rear windscreen. The whole piece can be stowed electronically in the trunk by a button on the interior.

Segway HT

The Birusa concept was paired with the Segway HT (Human Transporter), a segway scooter of Bertone's own design. The two are designed to work together and the Segway similar to the way Honda engineered the

Honda City The is a sedan car which has been produced by the Japanese manufacturer Honda since 1981. The City was originally a 3-door hatchback/2-door convertible for the Japanese, European and Australasian markets. The 3-door City was retired in 1994 a ...

and

Honda Motocompo The Honda Motocompo is a folding scooter (motorcycle), scooter sold by Honda between 1981 and 1983 as a factory add-on only in Japan. It was the smallest scooter ever produced by Honda and it folded into a rectangle for easy storage. History Rele ...

. The trunk of the Birusa folds outwards to create a ramp for the Segway HT. The Segway itself was upholstered in

Alcantara Alcantara, Alcântara ( Portuguese), Alcántara (Spanish), Alcàntara, Alcàntera, El-Qantarah and (El) Kantara are all transliterations of the Arabic word ''al-qantara'' (القنطرة), meaning "the bridge". Alcantara may refer to: People * ...

, like the interior of the Birusa, and featured its own

sound system, onboard navigation and headlights.

References

Birusa Sports cars Automobiles with gull-wing doors {{Modern-auto-stub