http://www.maxpower.co.uk/article.asp?asset=4729&p=5
Volvo’s XC70 SR (Surf Rescue) is a ride the Hoff would be proud to mince up and down the southern Californian beaches in.
The result of a collaboration between Volvo Concept Centres in Sweden, California and Spain, the XC70 SR concept was initially a purely virtual creation.
"The entire design process was performed digitally," says Larry Abele, design manager at the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Centre (VMCC) in Camarillo, California. "This enabled us to review and modify the design in real time by projecting it onto large scale screens at each studio."
Volvo selected the Aria Group in Irvine, California, to build the concept. Starting with a production XC70, the Aria team completely stripped the vehicle of its paint, trim, bumpers and interior.
Custom-designed parts were crafted for the concept without the traditional method of building clay models.; the ability to go directly from digital designs to a process called rapid prototyping greatly reducing development time.