LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- General Motors Advanced Design has won this year's Los Angeles Auto Show's Design Challenge. This year's winning entry is a design concept vehicle created for the 2025 revival of the LA Times Grand Prix that addresses clean, renewable and abundant California resources.

Called the Chaparral Volt, the racer was inspired by the creative genius of racing legend, Jim Hall -- founder of Chaparral cars. The design proposes using advanced EREV propulsion, energy collection, generation and management systems to create an entirely new category of racing -- the eco-triathlon.

The 2008 Design Challenge theme is Motor Sports 2025, an annual competition for the Automotive Design Studios in the Los Angeles region. This year's theme was to interpret historic motorsport design, innovative use of technology, a balance between and an environmental and rebellious design, and grounded in reality but futuristic in concept.

"Our GM designers at the West Coast Advanced Design Studio in Southern California tackled the challenge and developed a concept that results in a vehicle-powered only by Southern California's abundant renewable resources," said Frank Saucedo, Director of GM's Global Advanced Design Studio in LA. "The 'eco-triathlon' system uses three clean, renewable and abundant California resources: Earth, Wind and Fire:"



    Earth (geological) benefits the car as it takes advantage of the course
    topography and gravity to assist in creating energy via regenerative
    braking.

    Wind (aero-thermal) is used in many ways which include the turbine farm in
    the pit area which generates the team's electricity needs as well as
    providing a charge for the Chaparral Volt's batteries; the in-wheel
    turbines which articulate under braking to provide aerodynamic
    regenerative power creation and the Chaparral-historical use of
    rear-mounted suction turbines which aide in battery cooling and
    aerodynamic-induced down force.

    Fire (radiant sunlight) takes advantage of Southern California's most
    abundant resource -- the sun.  Integrated thin-film PV panels for the
    racer's body and team support unit takes advantage this abundant resource
    and converts it for use as the Chaparral Volt's primary energy source.

In the five years since the Design Challenges inception, the GM West Coast Advanced Design Studio has won twice before, in 2004 with GMC PAD Concept and in 2005 with Hummer O2.

About GM

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world's largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 77 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 252,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2007, nearly 9.37 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.

SOURCE General Motors Corporation