Motor Magazine October 1999
First Drive:
1999 Buick Cielo Concept
Five-Passenger Alfresco Motoring
by Jack Keebler
What do you do when you want to create an exciting new concept car, but you work for an auto division more associated with geriatrics than Generation X? You might want to blow the doors off conventionality with something like this unusual drop-top concept, dubbed Cielo.
Motor Trend recently grabbed an exclusive drive and photography session with this futuristic million-dollar showcar convertable on the twisting, cactus-lined mountain roadsabove the Phoenix Arizona.
In South Mountain Park, we put the fragile pearlescent bronze five-seater through its paces.
Like most mega-buck concept vehicles, the Cielo ( pronounced see-ay-low ) isn't supposed to be piloted by anyone other than GM design Center drivers. Typically, these hypercautious drivers move the delicate showcars across fresh convention center carpeting and into antiseptic trailer transports. And then after a few years of display on the show circuit, the one-offs are either retired to some dark corner of the styling studio basement or sent to the crusher. But we were able to jawbone generally sensible Buick PR guy Larry Gustin into letting us take the priceless Cielo for a spin.
So on one memorable morn, under a brilliant blue sky, we were tucked behind the Cielo's odd, singal-spoke, Citroen-like streeing wheel. Mixing oddly with the sweet, dry desert air, we sniffed the earthy aroma of styling studio modeling clay and nostril-scorching epoxy. We perched on top of the Cielo's hard, flat seats, which are upholstered with parchment-colored suede trimmed with russet piping. Before takeoff, we powered the two video screens back into the dash and then pressed teh console mounted " on " button. The familiar, yet more potent, growl of a supercharged 3800 V-6 spit out of the sawn-off tailpipe located just past the rear axle. No, we weren't street legal. But with the arranged motorcycle-police escort, it didn't matter.
With little under-dash sound or thermal insulation, the start-up puffed a friendly wave of warm motor-scented air around our bare arms and necks. We punched the "D" button on the middlie of the center-console PRNDL array. A second or two later, the car gently lurched against its applied brakes. a squeeze of the gas pedal, and we were on our way with the desert landscape rippling wildly through the handmade windshield.
Although the steering wheel rocks a bit on its column, the steering action itself is reassuringly accarate. And the chassis is relatively tight for a show car. But there are the typical noises of a handbuilt interior and running gear as yet unpolished by a development team. For example, a tonal tickle from the instrument panel sounds like the itch from an overloaded polystyrene cooler on the way to a picnic. And over particularly rough sections of worn asphalt, there's the occasional musical knock of metal parts inthe doors.
In this surreal scenario we can over-look such showcar shortcomings and enjoy a sunny summer day behind the wheel of a multi-million-dollar rolling sculpture. Like us, auto showcrowds also love teh open-air romance of this upscale four-door dream machine. Realistically, though, no major maker has offered a four-door convertable for decades because of rollover and personal-security concerns, as well as obvious problems with structural integrity. But Buick believes teh Cielo's clever lid could spark a topless four-door renaissance.
What so you think? The real-world downsides to such a design are obvious: First, a folding top's delicate roof bows afford little protection in a rollover accident. Second, midnight auto supply's sticky-fingered audio department is attracted to fabric tops like weasels to an ungaurded bird's nest. Third, without a steel roof's bridging strength, large-car chassis rigidity approximates that of a water-soaked shoebox. (Body flex creates noise and compromises ride smoothness and steering precision.) Fourth, reliable air conditioning has made the traditional hardtop a cool alternative in hot weather. But the final blow to such a radically large convertable would be its giant pricetag. However, Buick's experts say that their target is actually a rigid-pieced folding lid at the same price as a fabric top.
In fact, the Cielo is a car built around--or perhaps under--an innovative solution to most convertable short-comings. Buick's point: Appeal to buyers who'd never have considered a convertable, and carve out a whole new niche.
The roof's most important and striling feature is the long, arching steel rails that form its right- and left-side roof pillars. These are critical to the car's overallrigidity, as wellas to the function of the three sliding roof panels and rear-window glass, and their steely strength would be the front-line defense in a rollover. Early on, Buick's engineering team looked at super trick rails that telescoped out of the rear deck and up to the windshield header, but practicality prevailed with the welded-in posts, instead.
An electrically powered cable system within the rails slides the panels and rear window fore and aft to the trunk for storage. all teh sliding and olding is accomplished by a pleasantly silent power mechanism. The effect is shade one moment, and brilliant sunshine the next, almost as if clouds are lifting. The rear window, which travels in its own roof-rail channels, can be left partially up to reduce passenger wind buffeting. The point of the hard panels, of course, is to provide road- and windnoise control and buttoned-up, street-side security similar to that of a sedan.
The top can be activated by either a center console "open" switch or by pushing a microphone-receive button located on the floor and saying , "Open Roof." The vehicle is equipped with an electronic voice-recognition unit for hands-free operation of the doors, roof, audio, navigation, and climate-control systems.
Mike Doble, Buick's manager of advanced concepts, who actually helped build and design the Cielo, says he's timed the top-opening speed at about 32 seconds. And although a car that listens and responds may seem gimmicky, it's actually being considered for production. Eventually, it might even listen and respond in several languages.
teh Cielo was not created from scratch, though the modifications to the sacrificed Regal GS sedan were extensive, including a 3.5-inch wheelbase stretch and 1.5-inch track increase. The regal's suspension is essentially stock. But the rolling and stopping hardware is anything but plain vanilla. The tires are P245/40R20 Michelin radials with a special handcarved tread design created exclusively for the Cielo with Buick's tri-shield logo incorporated into the design. Front and rear are giant slotted and cross-drilled rotors pinched by four-piston racing calipers.
The Cielo's engine is the standard 3.8-liter/240-horsepower supercharged V-6 of hte sporty Regal GS. This engine mated to an electronically controlledfour-speed automatic is more than ample for concept-car motoring duties.
We are told the Cielo's front end was the most difficult design aspect and took the longest to complete, even though it doesn't boast a light show of jewel-like torches as installed on virtually every other luxury production or concept vehicle at the Detroit and Chicago shows. Actually, the car does have a set of advanced halogen projector beam headlamps hidden behind tri-angular-shaped moving panels. But we thought its noseappeared vaguely anonymous, despite the toothy '50's style Buick grille.
Obvious to serious Buick fans is the "sweep spear" shape of the Cielo body-side lower panel. Buick has used this signature form in chrome trim or in divisional body contours for almost 60 years, and this shape continues to grab admiration.
Inside it's Star Trek meets the interstate, as Cielo accomodates driver and four passengers with controls modeled around a "quiet servant" philosophy. Various electronic guages and video information screens remain hidden until called up, and the instrument panel design can also be electronically customized to taste. One of thecar's more interesting dash features is a CD player that displays the discs like the stacked-on-edge records in '50's jukeboxes.
Getting in and out of Cielo is also a bit unique. a voice command activates the power-operated doors, which swing away from teh stub B-post. (Doble admits these electric doors were primarily to entertain auto show crowds and are unlikely on a production car.) The posts are important, since they provise teh locking point for the swing-away doors and are solidly connected together across teh car by a hollow steel beam. Together, posts and beam add rigidity and side-impact protection along with door-mounted, side-impact airbags and an inflatable curtain that pops out of the roof rail. Also easing entry and exit is a feature last seen on last year's Buick concept, the Signia: recessed rocker panels that allow passengers to effectively walk into the cabin and sit down before lifting feet over the doorsills.
a car like the Cielo would b a slick piece for a sunny-day or moonlight cruise with friends, but only if engineering hits its goal of $3000 to $5000 for the cost of the alfresco hardware. We'd imagine a $35,000 to $40,000 Cielo would be a great way to energize Buick's image.