First look: Chev's true-blue Parisian prizefighter

HOLDEN'S stunning twin-turbo Torana TT36 concept wowed crowds at the Sydney motor show two years ago and now senior Holden designer Ewan Kingsbury has done it again.

The 25-year-old is the man behind WTCC Ultra, a wild five-door hatch concept that was revealed yesterday by Chevrolet Europe ahead of its global debut at this month's Paris motor show, where it will take pride of place on the Chev stand.

Designed to "celebrate the brand’s motorsport heritage and push Chevy’s styling language to the extreme", the brand-new concept is claimed to be more than a styling study in that it's a fully working vehicle that is ready for both the road and the racetrack.

WTCC Ultra is also a mobile demonstration of General Motors's (and in this case Chevrolet's) ability to employ global resources to develop new products.

Designed in clay by Mr Kingsbury at Port Melbourne, the WTCC Ultra's engine - a 140kW version of the 110kW 2.0-litre common-rail turbo-diesel that will debut in Europe's Captiva SUV and Lacetti hatch (read: Holden Viva) next year and that could also power both models yere - was built by GM Daewoo in South Korea.

Development work was carried out in the UK, Germany and Switzerland, and the prototype was assembled in Japan.

Chevrolet Europe says the WTCC Ultra offers performance to "rival high performance petrol cars" and was conceived as "a vision of a new generation of World Touring Cars" to follow the Chevrolet WTCC race team's second victory of the season earlier this month at Brno in the Czech Republic.

Captiva itself will also receive its first European showing ahead of its release in the UK during the first half of 2007, when it will go on sale with turbo-diesel and 2.4-litre petrol power.

Captiva is expected to hit Holden showrooms as a direct rival for Ford's top-selling Territory SUV in October, powered by a Holden-built 3.2-litre V6. More details of Holden's first medium SUV, which is expected to come with a starting price well below that of both Territory and Toyota's Kluger, will be revealed tomorrow.