Sit down, relax, turn down the lights and enjoy the ride. That’s the idea behind Citroen’s C-Airlounge concept at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show.

It's a car in which you can 'tune' the lighting to suit your mood according to the French company's British designer Mark Lloyd.

The C-Airlounge's door panels are interwoven with fibre optics which light up motifs of your choice, in this concept either arabesque or the Citroen chevrons, while images are projected onto the back of the front seats to provide a relaxed atmosphere, even the armrests are backlit with soft, diffused lighting while interior lights can be adjusted for colour and brightness.

To add to the calm, passengers can even plug headphones into individual music channels.

The ambiance on the concept car has five choices, Pure, Convivial, Romantic, Extreme and Baroque so you can tune the interior to your personality.

"You can play around with your lighting at home, why not in the car," said Lloyd. "It's an idea we are looking at for the future, to give customers more of a choice in the way they personalise their cars.

"While we are showing a choice of five ambiances, ultimately this could be limitless depending on what customers want."

There are many other innovative ideas on the C-Airlounge; the seating arrangement can be adjusted for four or five seats, with the rear centre seat placed slightly behind the other two to provide greater shoulder room.

There are also some interesting design cues to a more aerodynamic look for future Citroens.

Chris Wright, Interchange News Agency - 20 Sep 2003