FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW: up! and about

Volkswagen flexes up! muscles with open-air buggy up! and up! azzura sailing team
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Volkswagen is not alone in its introduction of a new family of small cars, but the array of variants based on its new up! light car displayed at the Frankfurt show was gob-smacking. No less than six disparate models stemming from the up! hatch were unveiled, including the topless buggy up!, the nautically-inspired up! azzura, the tiny cross up! crossover, the autobahn focussed GT up!, natural gas eco up! and the all electric e-up!

It seems the possibilities, to coin a phrase, are endless.

Two variants – the buggy up! and the up! azzura sailing team - share open-air aspirations

Volkswagen buggy up!
Volkswagen has a rightful claim to being the originator of the beach buggy, a stripped-down sand specialist based on VW beetle mechanicals that was originally born in California. The buggy up! takes its inspiration from the original beach buggy although it owes its basics to the front-drive up! platform. Doorless, roofless, virtually free of front and rear overhangs and lacking many conventional luxuries, the beach-bound two-seater wears hulking 18-inch wheels shod with 205/40 tyres and despite a raised ride height sits nearly 20 centimetres lower than a regular up!. It is also 44mm longer and 31mm wider.

The buggy up!’s doorless body uses extensive reinforcements to protect from side impacts and incorporates a roll bar behind the two seats.

The hot orange, beach-bound concept, appropriately, shows disdain for water. The interior is said to be completely waterproof, with drains in the floor and side sills preventing it from becoming a mobile bath tub. Even more nautical, it is possible to attach a special “sail” stretching between the window frames and roil bar to keep occupants dry if it starts raining.

The sound system with its removable module containing iPod/iPhone dock is also waterproof and “can be sued as a sound system for parties on the beach.”

Volkswagen says the buggy up! feels like a go-kart with its 58mm lower seats and dropped-down steering wheel.

Luggage is carried at the rear via a boot arrangement in which the main lids opens like a regular boot lid, while the panel above the bumper folds down like the rear deck of a ute. Unlike the Beetle-based original, which used fibreglass for the body construction, the buggy up! is made of high-tech lightweight steels.

The buggy up! shows its connections with the regular two-door up! via its headlights, tail lights and front badge positioning – as well as the signature “smiling” front bumper.

Volkswagen up! azzura sailing team
This up! concept is the creation of Italian designers Giorgetto Giugiaro and Walter de Silva and was designed as a “small, eco-friendly automobile for the world’s marinas.”

The waterproof, open-to-the-elements up! derivative does away with roof and side doors, replacing the section behind the seats with a flat deck able to carry diving gear, fishing equipment or other boating appurtenances while giving driver and passengers a direct connection with the elements. Volkswagen says the up! azzura racing team is fitted out to resemble a luxury yacht.

Giugiaro and de Silva are qualified to imbue the up! with a seafaring flavour as both grew up in nautical environments.

Read all the latest news and reveals from the Frankfurt Motor Show here.


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