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Volkswagen XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle

August 28, 2015

This is an article about a rather extraordinary little car, the Volkswagen XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle. Our client wanted his new car to have the very best start in life so selected our New Car Detail with GTechniq C1 & EXO coatings applied throughout. Of course, there is nothing ordinary about the Auto Curators service, but given the rarity and interesting facts behind this car, we thought it would make an interesting feature on it’s own.

The XL1 is designed to do just that, and has become the world’s most efficient liquid fuelled production car. There are just 200 of them in the world, and only 2 in this specially blended colour. This was the first one, painted in the bespoke colour for our client, the other belongs to Dr Piëch who wanted the same when he saw it in production!

The car seats 2 people and is propelled by a hybrid electric drivetrain. The electric motor, with 27ps, can take the car up to 50km on it’s own, from a full charge. Once depleted, the 48ps, twin cylinder, twin turbo 800cc diesel engine takes over. It has the world’s lowest liquid fuelled CO2 figure of just 21g/km, and the most aerodynamic car (lowest drag coefficient) of any road going production car.

The monocoque chassis and body panels mean that it is extremely light, just 795kg. The panels themselves are a technological break through, the exterior skin being just 1.2mm thick, lightweight and very strong. VW have developed a material called Carbon Fibre Reinforced Poylmer (CFRP). The main advantage of this material is the ability to manufacture it in an automated process, therefore it can be produced at higher quantities and lower prices than the very labour intensive prepreg process used to make carbon fibre panels normally. This has huge positive implications for cars of the future, as reducing weight has a massive impact on overall economy. The whole body of this car weighs just 230kg.

The car is limited to 99mph, with a zero-60mph time of around 12.5 seconds. Plenty quick enough for every day use, and sitting in it the Volkswagen family DNA is very evident, sharing much of the switchgear as a Golf. The main difference is that instead of drag inducing wing mirrors bolted to the outside, two discrete, military grade cameras are faired into the doors, feeding a camera screen on each door card, displaying the same as a wing mirror would.

A fascinating vehicle to experience, and quite funny to see it parked in the garage next to another ‘gull wing’ vehicle, the beautiful Mercedes 300SL featured here, itself an engineering masterpiece of it’s era.

Category: Volkswagen, WorkTag: auto curators, berkshire detailing, detailing, gtechniq, hampshire detailing, paint protection, swissvax, volkswagen, vw
Previous Post:Lotus Exige LF1 New Car Detail
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Our good friend Pete, of @petrolheadtours came to see us this week with his recent purchase. This dramatic looking Morgan Aero 8 is a very rare Series 1 car, unbelievably over 20 years old now. 
I’m fortunate that I’ve had the chance to drive these before, and the old school looks don’t prepare you for the driving experience. A very light car by modern standards, it features an aluminium chassis similar to that in a Lotus Elise, but borrows it’s drivetrain from a BMW 540i - so, a 4.4 litre, naturally aspirated V8 is under the bonnet. 
Pete is only the third owner of this amazing car, but years of someone lovingly wiping dust off the paintwork with a dry cloth had left it looking as dull as a blackboard. 
After a careful wash, there was an even more careful machine polish to carry out. The shapes are extremely awkward, and thus time consuming, but the results were well worth it. Finished with Onyx Graphene Pro ceramic coating, Pete was quite taken aback with the results when he collected it. We look forward to seeing it again at events this summer. 
Want the same for you car? Get in touch, we can help you. 
#autocurators #morgan #aero8 #detailing #paintcorrection #hampshire #hook #basingstoke #ceramiccoating #onyxgraphenepro
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Mar 15

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Q: When is a Yaris not your regular Yaris?
A: When it’s a Toyota Yaris GR!
We recently had the pleasure of welcoming one of these amazing cars to our studio for XPEL PPF installation. Find out more about the project in our latest blog article… Visit our dedicate PPF website ‘PPF On My Car’ from the link in our bio.
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Mar 9

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This super rare Alpina B3 Touring left us this afternoon, after we installed our Extended Front end PPF package. 
Having been delivered to us directly from Sytner Nottingham, on a covered trailer, we carried out a full new car preparation, before installing Xpel Ultimate Plus over the whole front, the sills, pillars and a rear luggage strip. We ceramic coated the paintwork and wheels, and protected the beautiful interior. This car will get lots of use, and should now stay looking like this for a long time. 
#autocurators #alpina #alpinab3 #sytner #xpel #ppf #hampshire #hook #basingstoke #reading #detailing #paintprotection #newcar #xpelhampshire
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