The Rinspeed Bamboo is one of the experimental concept cars built by Rinspeed, the Swiss design house founded by Frank M. Rinderknecht in 1979. Like the rest of the series, it was a design study rather than a production model.
Rinspeed Bamboo at a glance
| Maker | Rinspeed Inc., Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1979, by Frank M. Rinderknecht |
| Type | concept car, design study |
| Production | none, a show car |
| Shows | Geneva Motor Show and CES, Las Vegas |
| Company base | Zumikon, Switzerland |
The sources describe Rinspeed and its concept-car series but do not give separate technical details of the Bamboo; this page therefore covers the company and the series the car belongs to. Based on one source.
History of the Rinspeed Bamboo
Rinspeed Inc. was founded in 1979 by Frank M. Rinderknecht. By the 1980s the company had become the exclusive Swiss importer of AMG and AC Schnitzer vehicles, and it became known above all for a new car at the Geneva Motor Show almost every year. The first was a turbocharged, modified Volkswagen Golf GTI with a squared grille and headlamps; in 1981 came the Aliporta, a heavily modified Golf with gullwing doors similar to those of the DeLorean.
The following decades brought a long line of studies: modified Porsche 911 Turbos such as the R39 and the R69, a hand-painted Nissan 300ZX made with the Swiss artist Rolf Knie, futuristic aluminium-bodied sports cars including the R Roadster, the single-seat Advantige R1 running on kompogas, a Bugatti EB110 called the Cyan and a two-door, low-roof Porsche Cayenne. The Bamboo belongs to this series.
In the 2000s the company turned these show cars into tests of unusual engineering: the Splash crossed the English Channel as a hydrofoil in 2006, the sQuba of 2008 was the first car that could be driven both on land and underwater, and later studies such as the iChange, the Budii and the Oasis examined electric drive and automated driving. Rinspeed continues to present new projects at Geneva and at CES in Las Vegas.
Design and features
- A design study: the Bamboo was built to show an idea at a motor show, not to be sold.
- Rinspeed workshop: the car came from a company that made its name by rebuilding and rebodying production cars.
- Show-car tradition: Rinspeed presents its studies at the Geneva Motor Show and lately also at CES.
Rinspeed Bamboo versions
- Bamboo: the study itself.
- Other Rinspeed concepts: the series also includes the Splash, sQuba, iChange, UC, Budii and Oasis.
- Rinspeed show cars of the 1980s–1990s: the Golf GTI, Aliporta, R39, R69 and the Rolf Knie Nissan 300ZX.
Other studies from the same workshop are the amphibious Rinspeed Splash and the underwater Rinspeed sQuba. The whole series is collected under Rinspeed.
Video: Rinspeed Bamboo
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Rinspeed, English Wikipedia: company history and its concept cars
