Those were the two main requirements contestants were told to keep in mind as they designed submissions for an international contest to build a new and improved Popemobile.
And of course, the Pope had to be widely visible from the back of the vehicle, which would be used during outdoor public appearances.
Toronto native Eric Leong and Han Yong-fei, Leong’s classmate at Sweden’s Umea Institute of Design, knew they wanted to make something that stood a chance of going into production when they were tapped by industry experts to participate in the 2012 Autostyle Design Competition.
The annual event invites transportation design students from around the world to work on a specific transportation design challenge. In 2011, entrants were asked to create special versions of the Alfa Romeo 4C, Audi Quattro, Ford Vertrek, Peugeot HR1 or the Toyota Yaris HSD concepts.
The Popemobile came with a different set of challenges. Once described as the most famous company car in the world, it transports the head of the Roman Catholic Church when he travels through crowds, waving to the pious, the curious and occasionally, the deranged.
In 1981, as he rode in an open-air vehicle through a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded by a would-be assassin.
Since then, Popemobiles, as they came to be called, have been equipped with bulletproof glass.
Although Pope Benedict XVI most often uses a modified Mercedes, popes throughout the past 80 years have travelled in modified Cadillacs, Fiats, Fords and Renaults, depending in part on what country they are in and for what purpose. (Pope Benedict XVI reportedly uses the Renault at his summer retreat.)
The Popemobile concept car had to be based on a hybrid car or hybrid concept. The front had to be kept intact to maintain brand image. The back had to comfortably accommodate the Pope and his attendants, seated or standing, and provide maximum visibility of the pontiff as well as protection from assassination attempts.
Leong and Han incorporated emerging technologies in their design, including super-tough spider silk infused with titanium, and a spray-on battery technology developed by scientists at Rice University in Texas this summer.
The design also included bulletproof Kevlar-belted wheels and a solar panel on the roof to please the eco-minded Pope Benedict XVI.
“We tried to do something that was high-tech, but not blue-sky. Everything we’ve proposed is something attainable,” said Leong. “The spray-on battery is real, it’s not fiction.”
It also had to look seamless, not like someone stuck a big glass rectangle on the back of a truck. Leong and Han used a modified hybrid Volkswagen Cross Coupe.
“We tried to keep the design language of the vehicle itself,” said Leong.
Leong and his classmate received an award for their design at an event last month in northern Italy organized by the international auto industry. They were among a short list of 22 young designers.
Leong, 25, has a degree in industrial design from Humber College, and a master’s degree from the Umea Institute of Design. He switched into industrial design after beginning studies in engineering.
“It combined art and engineering for me. It wasn’t all engineering, which I found boring, or all artsy.”
Leong said he and his colleague, 23, got through the design in a couple of weeks with the help of some Red Bull.
Now back in Toronto, he’s looking for work, but he’s feeling confident.
In September, he won industry award for his conceptual design of the interior of a four-seat sports coupe, based on similarities between the human heart and the car’s central hydraulic system.