Concept Cars Never Made

Often unfettered by petty distractions like safety, comfort, or economic viability, concept cars are the purest expression of the automobile designer?s art. From Harley Earl?s space-age flights of fancy to the eco-friendly offices on wheels of today we list some of the most innovative, stylish, or plain silly designs of the last seventy years.

1939 Buick Y-Job

Created by Harley Earl, the doyen of automobile designers, The Buick Y-Job was the first real concept car. Earl used it as his personal runabout as well as exhibiting it to get a feel for what the public wanted. Pictures and more information here

1954 Lincoln Futura

The Futura was, almost literally, the last word in fifties automotive excess, featuring microphones to pick up the comments of admiring onlookers as it passed by. The prototype was eventually modified by George Barris and found fame as the original Batmobile. Pictures and more information here

1954 Buick Wildcat 2

With lines that prefigure the classic Corvette, the Buick Wildcat II was a lightweight fibreglass coupe that showed the way towards the cleaner lines that became standard in the 1960s. Picture and more information here

1956 Pontiac Club De Mer

With its low, sleek profile and wildly unnecessary dorsal fin the Club de Mer was an archetypal symbol of the sci-fi fifties. Even better than the full-sized car though was the quarter-scale model which was bought from Pontiac by visionary designer Harley Earl and rebuilt as a pedal car for his grandson. Picture

1956 Buick Centurion

Probably the first car to dispense with a rear-view mirror in favour of closed-circuit television the Centurion was distinguished by its one-piece bubble top that seems to have excercised a considerable influence on Gerry Anderson?s 1960 ?Supercar? series. Picture here and more information here

1958 Ford Nucleon

Powered, as the name suggests, by a small nuclear reactor rather than a petrol engine the Nucleon never quite got off the drawing board. Pictures and more information here

1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT

With styling that would still stand up today the Corvair pointed the way to modern ideas of aerodynamic design and spelt the end of the exuberant fin shapes of the 50s. Pictures and more information here

1969 Holden Hurricane

The Hurricane incorporated many technological innovations that may seem everyday to today?s driver but were positively out of this world to the motorist of the era. It featured digital instrument displays, sophisticated temperature control air conditioning, automatically-tuning FM radio, and the then revolutionary Pathfinder navigation aid. Like the Buick Centurion a rear-view mirror was dumped in favour of closed-circuit television. Pictures and more information here

1970 Lancia Stratos Zero

With probably the poorest visibility of any saloon car, the Stratos Zero was never destined to be a production road vehicle. The Stratos legacy lived on, though, in a series of highly successful rally cars. Pictures and more information here

1970 Porsche Tapiro

Upping the ante with two sets of gullwing doors the Porsche Tapiro boasted a windscreen raked back almost to the same angle as its bonnet and, if the contemporary publicity is to be believed, a young lady in a bikini with every car. Pictures and more information here

1972 Maserati Boomerang

The Maserati?s ground-hugging profile echoes the Tapiro, while pointing the way even more explicitly to Delorean?s ill-fated, but iconic, DMC-12. Pictures and more information here

1985 MG EX-E

A prescient design that influenced an entire generation of successful sporty roadsters like the Honda NSX, the MG EX-E was considered as the basis for a production car but ultimately sidelined for being ?too Japanese?. Pictures and more information here

2001 Ford ?49

The deliciously retro ?49 harked back to a lost era of optimism and opulence in American automobiles. Nothing like its sleek bodywork has been seen outside custom car rallies since the beginning of the fifties but if, for example, you?re outfitting a shadowy agency to investigate UFO sightings, this is the car to buy. Pictures and more information here

2004 Renault Trafic Deck?up

Not so much a car as a tiny room on wheels the peculiarly-named Deck?up had rotating seats and suicide doors on one side, enabling the users (they aren?t really passengers any more) to bring the great outdoors right into the cabin. Pictures and more information here

2004 Nike ONE

In a move that was more than a little conceptual, Nike, who don?t make cars teamed up with the makers of Gran Turismo, who don?t make cars either, to design a car which connects to the driver?s nervous system for optimal integration with the onboard computer. Pictures and more information here

2005 Holden Efijy

Like the Ford ?49 a wildly retro affair with some serious 21st Century technology under the skin. Adjustable ride height controlled by a dash-mounted LCD made this the ultimate Low Rider, which could skim along one inch above the tarmac. Pictures and more information here.

2005 Peugeot Moovie

Like nothing else on the road, Andr? Costa?s 2-seater electric transport pod combined doors and wheels into a huge round ?space docking port? to allow passengers to enter and exit through the ?hubcaps’ Pictures and more information here

2006 Saab Aero X

A gloriously stylish ?mid-life crisis special? with an imposing motorised canopy instead of doors means that this is one car that nobody will be getting into with a straightened out coat hanger. The ethanol power plant was a nod to growing ecological concerns among car manufacturers in the middle part of the decade. Pictures and more information here

2007 Aston Martin DB-ONE

A chunky, meaty Aston that wants you to know how fast it can go. We?re more than a little surprised that this musclebound beauty hasn?t cropped up in a science fiction movie yet. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you spot it. Pictures and more information here

2057 Mercedez Benz Silverflow

The most ?concept? of concept cars ? An amorphous sports car that reconfigures itself on the fly for minimal drag. Based not so much on currently available technology as repeated viewings of Terminator 2. Pictures and more information here

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