F7 Prologue Concept (2006)
It was originally intended to move the world like a storm.
It was originally designed to shock the world with style.
It was originally destined to change the world like a revolution.
But then came the recession, ruined everything they planned.
And to save the company, they decided to abandon it.
A big plan, with big ambitions,
In the end all has instead become a distant memory of a glorious past.
F12, 2018, just wrote this for no reason
In 2006, Ursula launched the F7 Prologue concept car in Tokyo, and that time Ursula’s ex-CEO Peter Schmidt (son of Ursula’s co-founder Otto) hosted the car himself with passion. It was originally planned to start production in 2009, and it will be Ursula’s new flagship sedan at launch.
The car was destined as the pinnacle of late-2000s high-end luxury. The car was fitted with the best luxury kit Ursula has to offer, including tons of leather, wood, aluminum and anything else even a Rolls Royce or a Bentley could envy.
Not only just the luxury, the F7 Prologue is also planned to have the all the Ursula advanced technology. ESC, Ursula Brake Assistant (a system that recognises emergency braking and increases the braking force, much like Volvo’s CWAB), Smart Drive Cruise Assist (advanced cruise control) and more could help Ursula gain a foothold on the high-end luxury car market with ease.
Powered by a aluminum block V10, this 540-hp luxobarge could actually run through roads with ease, and actually weighs less than it’s rivals thanks to it’s carbon fiber panels (the planned production version will be using aluminum for it’s panels instead) and therefore, this car could actually blaze to 100 km/h in just 5.3 seconds.
As a promise to make the car go on production, Ursula built several pre-production cars to test and improve the car, ensuring the car will not have problems while on sale.
(This car is one of the F7 prototypes Ursula have made. About 5 was built in Ursula’s testing facility in Hamburg, and some reports that the prototypes were seen in Berlin, Dortmund, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Moscow, Seattle, Las Vegas and Osaka. All 5 prototypes are still residing in Ursula’s HQ in Bremen.)
But then, the recession happened. National debts were on the rise. Major banks were declared bankrupt. People were losing jobs. And Ursula AG, which earns it’s revenue with it’s high-end luxury cars, suffered badly like never before. Ursula’s finances had their first ever net loss of €10.3 million and the company went on to sell just 650,000 cars that year, compared to 2007’s 1.4 million.
The F7’s high development costs have become a burden to Ursula, and the company is facing more and more problems than before. Then in September 2008, then-CEO Peter left the company due to his poor health and the worsen condition of Ursula. The new CEO, American-born Richard Hikes announced that the F7 project will be scrapped, in favor of much more cheaper, less ambitious projects such as the H3 MPV (launched in 2010), and the A0 luxury kei car, which is a rebadged Asuka Bear (kei car from Hiroshima-based Asuka Motors Japan) from 2010.
Although it was sadly, killed off by the recession and cost-cutting measures to save the company, the F7 was the planned icon of the past. Maybe we could see more ambitious cars than this from Ursula, but this is Ursula’s flagship that never came true.
Until one day.
