Concept cars are often never meant to be produced. They push design forward but often challenge physical or technological boundaries that make them impossible to mass produce, which means most of us will never experience a concept car. But for Youtuber ND – Woodworking Art, never experiencing the Audi Skysphere concept was not on the table. So he made a driveable wooden replica of it.
The Audi Skysphere is one of the most ambitious concept cars of the last few years. It’s a rear-wheel-drive electric roadster with proportions befitting the long, low streamliners of the pre-war era, but with an ultra-modern accoutrement. But its party piece is the variable wheelbase. In front of the A-pillars, the body extends and retracts depending on drive mode, using body gaps that are naturally there from the doors and hood to hide the ability. The car is quite cool, and the variable wheelbase actually works on the concept.
ND – Woodworking art did a stunning job replicating the car. The proportions, details, and scaling feel spot-on but what is most impressive is the craftsmanship it took to get those details right. It took two and a half months to create the car from scratch, all from wood. Watching the process get condensed down into a 13-minute video is even more astounding, showing the variety of tools and skills used to create the kid-sized replica.
Kid-sized because the goal of the replica was for the creator’s daughter to have a cute little car to drive around. This is a serious (and late) entry in the international dad of the year competition. Complete with working lights and turn signals that mirror exactly what is on the real Audi concept. The only thing that doesn’t work is the variable wheelbase, which would take an insane feat of arboreal engineering.
But seriously, it doesn’t get much cooler than this. Imagine having this in your driveway as a single-digit kid.
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