Imagine a car that’s the length of a Smart ForTwo, the width of a Honda Accord, and six inches taller than a Cadillac Escalade. Those are the exterior dimensions of the Mirrow Provocator, a Russian car company design. None are on the road yet, and all you can see on the Mirrow Cars website are graphic representations of many views and permutations of the vehicle.
Mirrow’s slogan is “Cars like a mirror of tomorrow.” The company describes the Provocator as a “business car” and says it’s intended for service in the city. It’s designed to park perpendicularly to the curb, preferably backed in, which turns out to be very convenient, as the only full-size door is in the back. There are emergency escape pop-outs for each of the four passengers via panels that are mounted on the upper half of the car’s sides.
The standard Provocator seating configuration is 2+2, with an aisle in the middle wide enough for large suitcases. There is also storage under the floor. According to Mirrow, more than 50 percent of the body will be produced from recycled polymers. The car maker proposes versions designed for climates in different parts of the world, with varying amounts of pop-in panels to protect passengers from the weather. The list of comfort, convenience, entertainment, and power options is near endless, and very little is standard. Mirrow proposes that, if powered by a conventional 3-cylinder, 1.5 liter turbocharged engine, the Provocator could accelerate from 0-62 miles per hour in under 8.7 seconds. Top speed would be limited to 87 miles per hour. If it’s electric powered, the range is estimated from 217 to 248 miles.
It’s all speculation at this point, but among the versions currently on display is a mobile “professional kitchen” with a back door that is perfect for serving customers on the sidewalk when you’re backed in. The interior height is just under six feet, but that’s from the ground, so if you were working standing up inside, it might not be very comfortable.
The Provocator is admittedly a work in progress. “The exact timing of the appearance of the Mirrow Provocator on the market, final configurations and price, will be determined in 2016, but today, you can subscribe to notifications about the opening of early booking or send your opinion to us or to your friends,” Mirrow states on its website.
All in all, the design is appealing because of its utter functionality. It’s like a Honda Element, only shorter, wider, and much taller. The a la carte approach to ordering a car, including pop-out side panels in various color or design combinations, would increase the odds that you’d never see a car like yours coming down the road. To suggest that we might see a Provocator for sale in the U.S. is probably stretching too much, but if it ever does go into production, it might very well appeal to city dwellers.
