Motopia – The National Motor Museum At Beaulieu Exhibition Of Visionary Vehicles
The Motopia, Past Future Visions, special exhibit at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum has collected a group of technically advanced, visionary vehicles for their time.
The exhibit has been open a while but is going to run until April 2024 so there will be plenty of time to see it.
The aim is to look at automotive history over the last 30 years and how different generations have created different imaginative visions for motor vehicles and their powertrains.
The National Motor Museum’s Curator of Vehicles and Research says, “The exhibition illustrates how past generations have predicted the future of road transport and the urban environment. We are living in a period of great change, and this exhibition will open a discussion on what future decisions we need to make and how the past may influence them. The vehicles illustrate a century of alternative thinking in automotive design.”
It remids me of Cars: Accelerating the Modern World at the V&A back in 2020.
Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz (1959)
The striking appearance of the 1959 Cadillac echoed that of the space race, those taillights looking like rockets. The styling was futuristic and has become an icon, even if the fins didn’t catch on beyond the that time period.
Columbia Electric (1901)
Electric vehicles were amongst the earliest forms of automotive transportation and have been around since the late 19th century.
The Columbia electric car here was bought by Queen Alexandra to use in the grounds of Sandringham House in Norfolk.
Made under the Columbia name it is one of many vehicles produced in the USA by the company and was imported and sold in Britain by The City & Suburban Electric Carriage Co. of London.
BMW CE 04 (2023)
The BMW CE 04 has been credited as a masterpiece of style and engineering. It’s also quite rapid and relatively light for an electric vehicle.
Designed for urban traffic it’s actually more capable than that and can be used in a variety of situations and performing very well too.
Volkswagen XL1 Hybrid (2014)
Volkswagen went all out to produce this very expensive diesel powered plug in hybrid. Technically the side by side successor to the L1 tandem concept. (I wish they had made this one).
The XL1 was made of lightweight materials and powered by an engine and transmission designed purely for economy. I like the idea, but I wish they’d make a cheaper one.
IRIS eTrike® (2017)
IRIS have essentially developed the successor to the Sinclair C%, which was way ahead of its time. I’ve even driven one, they’re rather good.
Designed by Clive Sinclair’s nephew, this is the world’s fastest, street legal electric bike. It has a cooling system, an air purifier and can travel over 30 mph and do 30 miles on a single charge. The body designed to mimic that of a velodrome racing helmet.
(Not pictured)
Riversimple Rasa Alpha (2015)
The engineering prototype of a new type of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion. The hydrogen us used as a fuel cell to provide electricity instead of the typical batteries.
Motopia? Past Future Visions is included in the admission ticket for the Beaulieu attraction. More information is available at www.nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/events and www.beaulieu.co.uk/motopia-past-future-visions.
This is one of those exhibitions like Cars: Accelerating the Modern World that I always like. The past isn’t always the best predictor of the future, but who’d have thought the electric car from 130 years ago would be strongly represented today. I wonder if the modern electric car will go the same way as the Columbia.
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