The Rinspeed Roadster is a sports car concept from Rinspeed, the Swiss design house founded by Frank M. Rinderknecht in 1979. It belongs to the company’s series of futuristic aluminium-bodied sports cars.
Rinspeed Roadster at a glance
| Maker | Rinspeed Inc., Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Type | concept car, design study |
| Body | aluminium-bodied sports car |
| Production | none, a show car |
| Founded | 1979, by Frank M. Rinderknecht |
The sources name the R Roadster only as one of Rinspeed’s aluminium-bodied sports cars; the rest of the page describes the company and that series from the same source. Based on one source.
History of the Rinspeed Roadster
Rinspeed Inc. was founded in 1979 by Frank M. Rinderknecht and by the 1980s had become the exclusive Swiss importer of AMG and AC Schnitzer vehicles. Its first show cars were rebuilt Volkswagens: a turbocharged Golf GTI with a squared grille and headlamps, and in 1981 the Aliporta, a Golf with gullwing doors similar to those of the DeLorean.
After a run of modified Porsches, among them the R39 and R69 Turbos, the company moved through the 1990s and 2000s with a broader mix of heavily modified and unique concept cars. These included the futuristic aluminium-bodied sports cars, of which the R Roadster is the example named in the sources, alongside the single-seat kompogas-powered Advantige R1, a Bugatti EB110 called the Cyan and a two-door, low-roof Porsche Cayenne.
The Roadster therefore sits at the point where Rinspeed stopped being only a tuner of other makers’ cars and began building its own shapes. As with the rest of the series, it remained a study: the company used such cars to try ideas at the Geneva Motor Show, not to start a production line.
Design and features
- Aluminium body: the car belongs to Rinspeed’s line of lightweight aluminium-bodied sports cars.
- Own bodywork: Rinspeed shaped the car itself rather than only modifying another maker’s model.
- Show car: built as a design study for the motor show, not for sale.
Rinspeed Roadster versions
- R Roadster: the aluminium-bodied sports car described in the sources.
- Advantige R1: the single-seat, kompogas-powered study of the same period.
- Later studies: the series continued with the Splash, sQuba, iChange, UC, Budii and Oasis.
Other studies from the same period are the Advantige R1 and the Splash, which crossed the English Channel as a hydrofoil. Everything is collected under Rinspeed.
Video: 1995 Rinspeed Roadster Concept
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Rinspeed, English Wikipedia: company history and the R Roadster
