Chhabria’s concept car unveiled at Detroit show

Prime Automotive Group handles all the premier brands of the world’s second largest automaker Ford Motor Company like Austin Martin, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover.

This is the first time that an international car maker has utilised the services of an Indian design firm for prototype building and it is likely to give Dilip Chhabria design a much-needed stepping stone for foraying into the highly-competitive global automobile design market.

What landed Chhabria the job was his impressive display of the ‘Infidel’, a sports car prototype with medium sized engine at the Geneva Motor Show in March last year.

DC Design has built the entire compact two-seater from the scratch based on designs supplied by Austin Martin. The prototype is powered by an all-new V8 engine and its body and chassis is made of aluminium and carbon fibre composites.

Austin Martin CEO Ulrich Bez said the prototype was of “very good quality” and its platform would be the basis for all future models of the company, whose cars have been made legendary by the James Bond movies.

Ulrich Bez said the car would showcase the brand, design and volume of Austin Martin and would be cheaper than previous models manufactured by the company. The AMV8 Vantage Concept is likely to be pitted against the Porsche 911 car in pricing thus making it the “most accessible” Austin Martin car ever, which sells only about 1,500 cars a year worldwide. The car would be hand-built at Aston Martin’s new plant in UK and sit alongside the company’s existing models like DB7 and the flagship Vanquish when launched in 2005. (PTI)