Rinspeed and Bayer MaterialScience Develop New Concept Car; ''zaZen'' - Automotive Enlightenment on Four Wheels; Revolutionary Lighting Technique and Transparent Hardtop at the Geneva Motor Show

Business Wire, Feb 15, 2006

ZUMIKON, Switzerland & LEVERKUSEN, Germany -- February 28, 2006, will mark the world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show of the Rinspeed concept car, "zaZen", created by the famous Swiss designer, Frank M. Rinderknecht. It represents his vision of the car of the future and will be showcased as a kind of "automotive enlightenment" on four wheels. The vehicle was produced in cooperation with Bayer MaterialScience, one of the world's largest plastics producers. It also embraces a technical revolution in car manufacture, with the transparent backlight being turned into a luminous holographic area. As if from nowhere, the third brake light shines out of what looks like a floating transparent hardtop.

The world premiere of the "zaZen" marks the beginning of a new era in vehicle design. The smoothly contoured, transparent, one-piece roof dome is made of Bayer's high-tech transparent Makrolon(R) polycarbonate. The lightness of the roof construction ties in with the surface coating of the "zaZen" - a white mineral shade based on the Bayer raw materials, Desmodur(R) and Desmophen(R). The gloss is made with millions of tiny precious Swarovski crystals protected by a self-healing polyurethane clearcoat.

The name of the new concept car - "zaZen" - has been carefully chosen by Rinderknecht: "After all, Zen - borrowed from Buddhist teaching - is a special form of perception: You only get there if you are prepared to give up preconceived ideas." Both partners went out of their way to emphasize that a concept car presented at a motor show can only be a snapshot taken from an unceasing development process. For example, the work on the switch-on/off transparency for three-dimensional forms is always ongoing.

Plenty of information and picture material is available at www.rinspeed.com and www.presse.bayer.com