Like many Italian coachbuilders, Italdesign Giugiaro is a mainstay at Geneva auto show, showing a new concept car every year. Having established itself in as an independent design house in the late 1960s, the company has been responsible for many concept cars for numerous manufacturers. Since becoming part of the Volkswagen Group in 2010, Giugiaro now has a bigger toy box to play with.

This latest Parcour concept was born from an idea initiated by Fabrizio Giugiaro, the founding father’s son. Shown in both coupe and a roadster form, the two-seat four-wheel-drive buggy sources power from a 5.2-litre. Lamborghini V10 engine mounted behind the passenger cell.  It is claimed to accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.6 seconds.

Its design is derived from blending three different vehicle typologies – namely SUV, grand tourer and sports car. It’s angular aesthetic features some of Giugiaro’s wedge-like design characteristics seen on past concept vehicles, notably the Namir shown at the Geneva show in 2009, but the deconstructed look is largely attributed to Lamborghini, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Drawing inspiration from the urban discipline of parkours, the concept car is able to adapt to different environments through a system that can adjust the vehicle’s ride, suspension height and the engine response via a control device fitted in the dashboard. This enables the driver to choose between four individual settings with a bias towards comfort, off-road driving or high-speed track driving. The result is a two-seat coupe crossover that can vary its ride height between 220mm and 330mm.

Carmakers are always looking for ‘white space’ to develop a vehicle that will fill a void or create a new typology. The Parcour concept is Italdesign dipping its toe into a non-existing vehicle typology pool to gauge the public’s reaction, but we doubt it will be produced.

Eric Gallina

Eric Gallina is a freelance journalist and the editor of Form Trends, a new website covering the automotive design industry and the people who work within it.