Back in the 1970s, Bertone had a tradition of producing the most outrageous concepts, so it's good to see the Pandion continuing this legacy as a design that really polarized opinion today.
In the flesh, this is a far more dramatic creation than the sneak preview shots suggested. While the exterior surfaces are fairly simple, the car really comes alive when the doors are opened up. And what doors! Fully 3m in length, they soar upwards, rotating around the rear wheel, as on the little Barchetta concept of 2007. What is revealed is a stunning white exoskeleton running throughout the interior and down the center tunnel, an idea that's been buzzing around in student projects for a couple of years but never developed full size.
Talking to chief designer Adrian Griffiths, he explained the idea behind the car: "We call this 'Algorithmo Design', the movement of a surface from outside to inside in a continuous movement. The structure and lines move through the car. We also looked at the Alfa Romeo logo, composed of a red cross, which represents structure, and the snake, which is skin."
The front mask and lamps are integrated into a powerful DRG but it's the rear that's the most dramatic area of the design, with random blades jutting out from the grille in a pixelated manner, almost as though they represent noise exiting from the car or the volumes breaking up, similar to the tail of a comet.
The interior features four slim seats trimmed in turquoise Technogel, as are the floor mats. "A cocoon held within this robust structure, where the seats appear to float in this interior," according to Griffiths. The exposed chassis tub is finished in a rough geometric texture that apes the blades used elsewhere for grille apertures. To be honest, we feared the Pandion might not be so outstanding, but seeing it up close it's definitely one of the stars of this show.
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