Prototype car
Bristol Brigand represents a prototype, the sort of pre-production car used to test new models before release.
Prototype car /proh-toh-type kar/ noun (countable)
A prototype car is a pre-production test vehicle, built to evaluate and refine the engineering, design, and performance of a forthcoming production model. This is the automotive world's equivalent of a dress rehearsal, except the actors are covered in camouflage and are deliberately driven into things to see what falls off. It is a secret, hard-working mule that exists to be thrashed, tested, and broken, often disguised with the cobbled-together body panels of an older model, like a burglar wearing his grandad's coat. It is a car in its awkward teenage phase, enduring a life of abuse at the hands of test drivers so that the final product, hopefully, doesn't develop a fatal new rattle on the motorway.
The Full Story of the Prototype Car
The life of a prototype car is short, brutal, and almost entirely secret. These are the unseen workhorses of the automotive world, the essential link between a designer's hopeful sketch and the car that eventually appears in the showroom, usually looking a bit fatter and less exciting. Long before a new model is revealed, a fleet of prototypes is dispatched to the world's most punishing environments. They are driven through the frozen wastes of the Arctic and the searing heat of Death Valley, not for a holiday, but in the hope that some crucial part will fail spectacularly.
Prototypes exist in several distinct forms. The earliest are known as "mules". These are often bizarre-looking Frankensteins, where the new car's engine and chassis are hidden beneath the crudely modified body of an existing car. The original Range Rover prototypes, for example, were badged as "Velar" and featured awkward, slab-sided bodywork to disguise the revolutionary vehicle that lay beneath, fooling absolutely no one who saw them ploughing through a bog.
As development progresses, the car will begin to wear its own body panels, but cloaked in a dizzying wrap of black-and-white camouflage. This vinyl covering is not a fashion statement; the swirling patterns are designed to confuse the camera lens and break up the car's lines, preventing spy photographers from getting a clear shot of a new curve that the marketing department wants to save for the big reveal.
The final stage is the pre-production prototype. These look almost identical to the finished article but are often painstakingly hand-built with the kind of panel gaps that would give a German quality inspector a nervous breakdown. For decades, much of this secret work in Britain has taken place at proving grounds like MIRA, a place where the future of the British motor industry is abused into shape. Once its job is done, the prototype's life almost always ends in the ignominy of the crusher, its secrets taken to the grave.
For The Record
What is the purpose of the weird camouflage wrap?
The swirling black-and-white patterns are specifically designed to confuse the eye and digital cameras. They break up the car's feature lines and shadows, making it very difficult to judge the final shape from photographs, much like a dazzle-painted ship from the Great War.
What's the difference between a prototype and a concept car?
A concept car is a piece of motor show theatre, a flight of fancy designed to generate headlines. A prototype is a working tool built to be broken. A concept car is a supermodel on the catwalk; a prototype is the crash test dummy.
Where do prototypes go when they are finished with?
Almost all of them are unceremoniously crushed. Because they are not certified for public sale and may not meet final safety standards, manufacturers destroy them to avoid any liability. Only a very small number are saved for a company's museum, usually the ones that broke down the least.
Who were the "Velars"?
Velar was the secret project name for the original Range Rover prototypes of the late 1960s. The name, from the Italian 'velare' meaning to veil or to cover, was put on the bonnets of the first 26 test vehicles to disguise their Land Rover origins.
Is the Nürburgring really a development track?
Yes, the Nordschleife loop of the Nürburgring in Germany has become the default industry standard for dynamic testing. Its punishing 13-mile combination of corners, crests, and changing surfaces is a brutal examination of a car's chassis, and a convenient marketing tool to show off with lap times.