Volkswagen Futura

The Volkswagen Futura is a concept vehicle developed by the German car manufacturer Volkswagen.

History
The Volkswagen Futura was presented in 1989 at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Design & Features
The Futura was intended to be an experimental, yet extremely innovative vehicle, and Volkswagen imagined it as an idea of where the automobile could be 10 to 15 years in the future. As a result, the Futura incorporated a plethora of features that were unheard of in vehicles from that time period including, but not limited to an electric parking brake, four-wheel steering, and the implementation of a fully automatic anti-lock system. It also made use of an on-board computer, and could, according to Volkswagen, position itself in parking spaces without any form of driver input. (automatic parking)

The engine was designed to be as economical as possible, capable of an estimated 39.2 miles to the gallon (6.0 Liters\100 km). It achieved this through a 1.7 L (1,715 cc) inline-four engine, which was, similarly to other Volkswagen models of the era, (such as the Polo or Golf) equipped with a G-Lader supercharger, which improved fuel efficiency by a large margin. It made 82 PS (81 hp;102 kW) and 155 N·m (approx. 60 ft·lb) of torque. The Futura also had no radiator, instead cooling the engine through the use of a newly engineered evaporative cooling system developed for the Futura.

Exterior-wise, the car resembled a shortened MPV from many angles, although much unlike a traditional minivan, it had 2 seats and gull-wing doors, which were a rather uncommon characteristic across vehicles of all classes during that period.