Sometimes it's difficult to tell what's going round in car designers' heads (with the glorious exception of Jaguar's Ian Callum, who always tells like it is) or to understand how they see the world.
Volkswagen design chief Walter de Silva unexpectedly hit one right out of the park with the 2008 Scirocco, a gloriously sexy coupé-style three-door that makes even the Alfa Giulietta look a little overdone and sent the Volvo C30 back to the frozen wastelands of the north.
But it was based on the Golf 5 platform, which is now two generations out of date, and it will have to be replaced within the foreseeable future.
So you'd expect Da Silva to do what VW (and Audi, and Porsche) nearly always do in these circumstances: evolve and refine the existing design so that it looks fresh and will accept the underpinnings of the current platform.
Wrong.
At the New York Auto show De Silva told Australia's Car Advice that the fourth-generation Scirocco, due for release in late 2015 or early 2016, would be “completely different” - that it might not even have three-door hatchback architecture.
He told Car Advice: “We don't want to repeat the body style of the Scirocco, we want to change that.”
At this stage, he said, the car was still a studio project and nothing was cast in clay, but that he wanted the new Scirroco to emphasise the sporty side of VW - to make it “more like sister brands Audi and Seat”.
“We are still working,” he said, “but we are looking 360 degrees.”
One thing is defined, however; he'll have to use the MQB modular platform that underpins the Golf 7 - he'll never get permission to put a low-volume niche car like the Scirocco into production if he doesn't, but that's not a bad place to start.
Throw out the back seats - the ones on the Scirocco are at best 'occasional' accommodation and very difficult to get into or out of - in favour of a combine parcel shelf/boot, like the erstwhile BMW M Coupé, which will save a significant amount of weight and allow you to fit really radical sports seats - which will allow you to lower the roof, especially at the back, and save more weight.
Get the message?
Now you've got a two-door two-seater not much bigger (or heavier) than a Toyota 86; the only problem is that it's front-wheel drive.
But don't worry, we'll fix that.
Moving downward, bolt in the lowered suspension straight out of the Golf 7 GTI parts bin, and the 4Motion all-wheel drive that's already on offer in Euro-spec Golf 7 diesels - but with a strong torque bias towards the rear axle.
Then drop in the Golf 7 GTI's 162kW, 350Nm, two-litre turbopetrol - or, better yet, make the 169kW Power Pack that's already been announced a standard fit - and you've got an all-wheel drive two-seater that'll make the aforementioned Toybaru look silly around corners as well as in a straight line.
And when the Golf 7 R comes out, the Scirocco R could be just behind.
Just consider that the VW Group’s 2-litre makes up to 221kW in the Audi S3.
It'll also be dead easy to add a 1.4 TSI-powered front-wheel drive 'entry-level' version with the same sexy fastback styling.
This is all pure speculation, of course, but none of it as actually very radical except the basic assumption of making it a two-seater, something VW has historically been reluctant to do.
But then, if a second row of seats is non-negotiable, why not re-invent the Tiguan as a seriously sporty crossover in the mould of the Nissan Juke - with the added benefit that in 2017 it could replace the Polo WRC.
The possibilities are endless.