I always wanted a car that looked like an insect trying to kill me when I get in it, and the new GFG Style Kangaroo concept car, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and his son, is pretty much that.
You almost certainly recognise the Giugiaro name—to call him “prolific” is an understatement, as he’s designed some of the most influential and lasting cars of all time. He did this with his son Fabrizio, which is where GFG comes from.
You may recognise the general shape and stature of the GFG Style Kangaroo concept because Italdesign has done a few lifted cross-country style supercar concepts in the past. There was the Giugiaro Parcour concept back in 2013, a lifted supercar, which was later reworked into the Audi Nanuk off-road supercar concept that had a diesel V10.
That makes the Kangaroo the third iteration in this weird car-family lineage, and this latest version is electric.
The all-wheel drive Kangaroo has a 90 kWh battery pack good for a claimed 451km of range (it’s not clear what testing standards this is based on), with two electric motors putting down a combined 483 horsepower. It has a claimed 0 to 60 mph time of 3.8 seconds and a limited top speed of 249km/h.
It has three different ride-height settings including up to 10.2 inches of ground clearance for ostensible off-roading, with 56cm wheels and all-wheel steering. The car is a space-frame construction with a body built of carbon fibre, with some of that exposed to contrast with the paint finish.
The styling takes the two previous Italdesign and Audi concept proportions and shapes it into something with a cab-forward profile reminiscent of the Jaguar C-X75 (maybe it’s just the orange colour), and a squinty face that sort of reminds me of those old Lotus concept cars that never became a reality.
Overall it looks about as silly as an all-wheel drive “hyper SUV” should look, with the dangerous-looking split-opening scissor doors serving as the cherry on top.
The car is reportedly an actual running prototype in partnership with CH Auto, and will be on display at the Geneva Motor Show this week. As for whether anybody will actually be able to buy this, I’m not sure, but am very doubtful.
It’s also not clear whether the can of orange Fanta in this interior render actually comes with the car or not, though.