Emerging designers are fascinating. They provide a relatively uncluttered look at the next generation of automobile design, usually five to ten years away from hitting the streets.

Students of industrial design are well-prepped for the world of making dream shapes and sketches come to life — in panels and 4D forms that could, in theory, be produced some day.

Their vision and style for final thesis projects, like the SL Pure by Mattias Bottcher of Germany, can be a powerful catalyst. Pulling forward the future with new ideas unfettered by corporate speak, layers of hundreds of other designers, or the cascade-down vision of the head honchoes in OEM design departments.

Bottcher’s SL Pure embodies everything we love about design students and their raw, delightful talent. The SL Pure takes a look at how a hardtop, perhaps full EV, Mercedes-AMG flagship could look in the very near future. Imagine the SL roadster in a blender with the McLaren-Mercedes SLR, AMG SLS and the new AMG GT. The liquid lubricant is a special future ooze in that puree.

The most salient aspects of the SL Pure’s design are in the nose and tail. Up front, an unblemished grille is fully painted with just a slight outline in the oval edge of the current AMG GT-S grille. Whether fixed as a clean and industrial-chic face of the car, or active vents pulling the flush painted piece inward to take in cooling air, the ideas are quite eye-catching.We especially love how the ultra-low hoodline flows below the fender-tops and makes an arrow-like protrusion in the nose form. Ripples of stretched-fabric-like tension in the hood add some unique shadows to that hood as well.

Outward triangular LED headlights live just ahead of the tall front fenders and clean fender-sides.

Around the profile, we see continuity in the proportions, glasshouse and roofline. But the lower body surfacing?  Wild stuff here. Massively deep flares for fenders front and rear swoop deep inward and upward in a deeply sculpted sill. The upward flow lightens the car’s look visually, while also shows what may be possible with a next-gen of CFRP bodywork. Today, alloy or steel stamped panels have major limits on the stamp depth. A wall of technical limitation, frankly, that makes it impossible to explore next-level body designs. Also, sadly, a reason many beautiful concepts become boring and dull production facsimiles.

A full-width LED lightbar in back is gorgeous and should definitely feature on the next AMG GT or perhaps even the 2017 SL63, which is dying for a full redesign to help the seminole luxury roadster appeal to its half-dozen new — and far sexier — competition. How to let the SL’s next design trump the Audi R8 or McLaren 570S upstarts?

New and gorgeous design ideas like Bottcher’s SL Pure are one of the best ways to win back SL ditchers — and create a flagship look to trickle down all the way to a 2025 A-Class. Until the next great design visionary graduates…! =]

Actually, we have a new application for these design ideas. ASTON MARTIN!!!  DB11 would wear these curves well.  With its next-gen AMG engines……….?

2020 Mercedes-Benz SL PURE Concept by Matthias Böttcher

Matthias Böttcher

Stuttgart, Germany

mbtdesign.com

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Bachelorthesis by Matthias Böttcher

 

 

Mercedes-Benz SL