Like wine in a box and nude motocross, the best concept cars are born of unhinged moments of inspiration. Offering an unfiltered peek into the consciousness of a designer or creative team, concepts are not asked to answer to the demands of reality, but instead inspire and provoke, and challenge the accepted tenets of the day. Manufactures love them for their ability to grab the attention of an otherwise-indifferent public, and we love them because they remind us of why we got into cars in the first place.
To celebrate, we compiled another list of our favorite concepts cars of all time. Click on through for the full rundown.
Lancia Stratos Zero
Bertone designer Marcello Gandini was still in his early 30s in 1970 but already had cars such as the Lamborghini Miura and Alfa Romeo Carabo on his astonishing resume. But those beauties were restrained and conservative compared to the Lancia Stratos Zero. Built around the lightweight mechanicals of the Lancia Fulvia HF, the Stratos Zero was designed expressly to be the lowest car possible. And with its radical wedge shape, this sliver of a car is only 83-centimeters tall. That’s 32.7 inches. It was so low that it had to be entered through the hinged windshield. It makes a Ford GT40 look like a monster truck.
Lancia Stratos Zero
Power for the concept car came from the Fulvia’s 115-hp, 1.6-liter V-4, mounted midship, so it wasn’t very fast. However in 1971, when Lancia decided to go rally racing, competition director Cesare Fiorio saw potential in the Stratos. Built on the same short wheelbase as Stratos Zero, but equipped with a new drivetrain that included a Ferrari 2.4-liter V-6, the Lancia Stratos rally car kind of, sort of, maybe-a-little-bit resembled the Zero. And running under Group 4 rules, it won the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975, and 1976. —John Pearley Huffman
Oldsmobile Golden Rocket
In its rose-colored Jet Age prime, General Motors had enough money and market share to justify the Motorama, a traveling five-make auto show patterned after the World’s Fair. Three years after the first Corvette launched at the New York Motorama, Oldsmobile stole the 1956 event with the Golden Rocket concept, a missile-shaped, shark-nosed coupe. With a 234-cubic-inch, 275-hp V-8 pushing just 2500 pounds, the fiberglass-bodied Golden Rocket could have blasted a contemporary ‘Vette.
Oldsmobile Golden Rocket
But this was a luxury car that previewed the electronic conveniences we take for granted today. It featured a power-tilt steering column, and upon opening the doors, the seats automatically raised three inches and swiveled outward—all while the twin roof panels tilted upward for effortless ingress and egress. Unfortunately, the production 1957 Golden Rocket 88 coupe was nothing like this svelte beauty—but, to be fair, neither the autonomous, turbine-powered Firebird II show car nor the Frigidaire dream kitchen that were part of the same ’56 Motorama ever saw reality either. The concept’s split rear window did show up on the 1963 Corvette, however. More than anything, the Golden Rocket made postwar Americans hungry for GM’s showroom products. Looking back at it today, the concept’s real gold might be in the husband-and-wife jingles in the promo films for the car: “How do you feel about this fine Oldsmobile? / It’s easy to see myself taking the wheel.”—Cliff Atiyeh
Alfa Romeo BAT 7
Perhaps the most beloved roadgoing Alfa Romeo designed by Franco Scaglione was the Tipo 33 Stradale, which ultimately lent its chassis to Marcello Gandini¹s seminal, wedgy Alfa Romeo Carabo concept . But Scaglione had penned influential concepts of his own, most notably Alfa¹s legendary BAT 5, 7, and 9, conceived during his 1950s tenure at Bertone.
In their own way, the BATs were as space-age as the Carabo, rocket-jet midcentury time capsules that had arrived straight from the yellow atmosphere of Venus. Of the three, the BAT 7, the middle car shown at Turin in 1954, is our favorite. Built atop Alfa¹s 1900 chassis, BAT 7 featured a coefficient of drag of just .19.
Alfa Romeo BAT 7
While the BAT 5 looked like something the Dark Night cobbled together out of a P80 Shooting Star, and the BAT 9 wore a distinctively Alfa visage, the 7 seemed to presage late-’60s, hidden-headlight muscle, its twin rectangular maws echoed by the 68-72 Pontiac GTO and the 1969 Dodge Charger.
And the BATs still carry weight today. Moto Guzzi referenced them when explaining the design of their new, far-out MGX-21 Cruiser. And while Alfa Romeo is currently pushing the 33 Stradale’s heritage to move 4Cs, we imagine the company will trot them out once more as a reminder of the brand’s history of innovation. —Davey G. Johnson
Chevrolet Corvette Four-Rotor
There was a moment in the early 1970s when the Wankel rotary engine seemed to be the wave of the future. With its reduced parts count and almost vibration-free operation, it was a model of engineering elegance, and GM bet big on it. Working on a license from the aircraft-engine builder Curtiss-Wright, GM built a two-rotor engine and readied it for production in the new Monza for 1975. But with Mercedes prototypes and Mazda production cars already running around with Wankels, GM felt it had to display its earnestness about the engine. So in 1973 it prepared two mid-engine Corvette concepts powered by two-rotor and four-rotor rotaries.
The Two-Rotor concept looked production-ready, tautly drawn with a low nose that promised great visibility. (It actually was built on a Porsche 914 chassis.) But it was the Four-Rotor concept that brought glamour to the 1973 auto-show season. The Four Rotor had an almost-symmetrical shape with a pointed prow up front and a sliver of a tail. The gullwing doors had mid-door hinges, and the four-rotor engine (basically two two-rotors) sat sideways behind the cockpit.
Chevrolet Corvette Four-Rotor
The Four-Rotor was never seriously considered for production. And it should have died a noble death after GM cancelled its rotary plans in light of the prototype engine's tendency to consume fuel and oil at prodigious rates—but it was so beautiful. So in 1976 GM design boss Bill Mitchell pulled it out of mothballs and replaced the rotary with a 400-cubic-inch V-8 and renamed it the Aerovette. He then started lobbying to put it into production. That didn’t happen, but the car still exists today as the most beautiful Corvette that never was. —John Pearley Huffman
Plymouth XNR
Plenty of car designs created during the Jet Age featured aeronautical cues, but the Plymouth XNR was more like a comic-book spaceship. It certainly didn’t look like a Plymouth, what with its two seats and its asymmetrical bulges on the hood and decklid.
Plymouth design was fairly cutting-edge at the time of the XNR’s 1960 debut, but only a few years before, the entire Chrysler Corporation’s lineup was “boxy, tall, [and] uninspired,” according to the definitive chronicle of American car design, A Century of Automotive Style. In late 1949, Chrysler hired Virgil Exner—who’d worked under GM’s Harley Earl and Studebaker’s Raymond Loewy—to be its chief designer and to transform the company’s reputation for boring styling. And transform it he did, most notably with the long, low, and fin-tastic 1957 lineup.
Plymouth XNR
Flush with that success, Plymouth designers saw it as an appropriate time to toy with the idea of a two-seat roadster that could battle the popular Chevrolet Corvette. Exner’s surname provided the basis for the concept car’s name. The new 1960 Valiant compact provided the XNR’s bones, including its 170-cubic-inch slant-six engine. Crafted by Carrozzeria Ghia in Italy, the body panels were absolutely unique and made of from steel, not fiberglass like so many concept cars of the day (not to mention the Corvette). Exner once said of his namesake car’s lines: “The goal is to try for the graceful look, with a built-in feeling of motion. The wedge shape expresses the function of automobiles because it imparts a sense of direction.”
The XNR eventually passed through the Shah of Iran’s car collection in the 1960s, and was later stashed in a series of hiding places in Beirut during the long Lebanese civil war. After being restored in Canada around 2010, RM Sotheby’s sold it at Monterey in 2012 for $935,000. The timeless design was also digitized for gameplay in Gran Turismo 6. Not bad for a 1960 Plymouth. —Rusty Blackwell
Nissan Pivo
For their home-market auto show in Tokyo, Japan’s carmakers can be reliably counted on to let their collective freak flag fly, in the form of bizarre concept cars. And, given Japan’s crowded environs, the form those concepts most often take is that of tiny transportation pod. One of the best examples of the genre is the Nissan Pivo, which made its debut at the 2005 Tokyo show. The name comes from the word “pivot,” which is appropriate given that the car’s spherical passenger compartment can spin 360 degrees. Which means you never have to back up—you just spin around and drive forward in the other direction.
Nissan Pivo
The Pivo also satisfies the extreme-Japanese concept-car requirement of having a face-like mug. And of course it’s an EV. Other notable features include sliding doors, staggered 1+2 seating, and four-wheel steering. Nissan was so enamored of the Pivo that it rolled out a thematically similar Pivo 2 follow-up version for 2007, and a disappointingly conventional (save for its caster-like wheels) Pivo 3 in 2011. But the original is still the weirdest—and thus the best. —Joe Lorio
Ford Mustang Milano
Ford has produced many Mustang concepts over the years—some awesome, some awful. Among the awesome is the pretty purple 1970 Mustang Milano. With its impossibly slim windows and Naca-ducted hood, the Mustang Milano screams muscle car the point of caricature, if not originality. Indeed, had it no badges giving up its identity, the Mustang Milano could just as easily have been a concept version of a Dodge Charger or a Pontiac GTO. Still, it’s cool as hell, and it clearly informed the design of the 1971 Mustang, specifically its fastback profile and Kamm-back tail treatment.
Ford Mustang Milano
The Mustang Milano concept was a two-seater with a huge cargo hold accessible via a power-operated, 67-degree rear hatchback. Other interesting details include a triangular rear quarter window (which became trapezoidal in production) and vertical ducts on the outboard sides of the front end, a la the 1969 Mustang GT500. The bisected grille and a bumper-less rear fascia were both rendered in silver, matching the lacy aluminum wheels that were far ahead of their time. If there is a visually unsettling aspect of the Milano, it would be the awkward, droopy taillamps that reportedly glowed green under acceleration, yellow while coasting, and red during braking. —Steve Siler
GM LeSabre concept
GM design boss Harley Earl’s custom-built Buick Y-Job is widely considered to be the first concept car, but his much-wilder follow-up had even more far-reaching affects. Whereas the Y-Job was a chopped and restyled Buick convertible, the LeSabre, which made its debut in 1951, was a from-the-ground-up design that captured the excitement of the dawning jet age. With its central air intake, hidden headlights, wraparound windshield, and towering tail fins, the ultra-low LeSabre (which was more than a foot lower than contemporary cars) looked like nothing else on the road.
GM LeSabre
And it was on the road. Despite its otherworldly looks, this was no static-display show pony. It was powered by a supercharged, 335-hp aluminum V-8, mated to an aluminum driveshaft and a rear-mounted automatic transmission. Hidden under a hard tonneau was a power top; a rain sensor could actuate it automatically in the event of a passing shower. The best part is that, like the Y-Job, the LeSabre was Harley Earl’s personal driver; Mister Earl tooled around Detroit in this one-off show car for years, ultimately putting some 45,000 miles on it. Public reaction to the LeSabre was so strong that it spurred GM to begin building a series of dream cars for the company’s Motorama traveling road shows. In that respect, it ignited the whole concept-car tradition. —Joe Lorio
Simca Fulgur
When humanity’s love affair with the act of splitting atoms was still in its infancy, marketers routinely affixed the word “atomic” to almost any product, in hopes of tapping into the imagination of consumers. While American auto manufacturers may have lead the charge, the practice wasn’t lost on French auto manufacturer Simca, which launched its space-age Simca Fulgar concept just in time for the 1959 Geneva auto show. Styled by the legendary designer Robert Opron, whose oeuvre also includes the Renault Alpine and Citroën SM, the Fulgar was a study in in what cars would look like in the year 2000.
Conceived to be propelled by “atomic” means, it featured voice-activated control and radar guidance. Similar to Ford’s Gyron concept, the Fulgar utilized internally mounted gyroscopes to allow it to balance on two wheels while underway. Say what you will about dopey mid-century optimism, the Fulgar was batting .500 in terms of predicting future automotive technologies.
Simca Fulgur
Conceived to be propelled by “atomic” means, and feature voice activated control, radar guidance, and, similar to Ford’s Gyron concept, utilize internally mounted gyroscopes to allow the Fulgar to balance on two wheels while underway. Say what you will about dopey mid-century optimism, the Fulgar was batting .500 in terms of predicting future automotive technologies.
Latin for “Flash” or “Lightning,” the Fulgar made its way stateside in the early 1960s for the New York and Chicago auto shows, where it apparently made an impression on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, creators of The Jetsons prime time animated television series which debuted in 1962. Indeed, the line from the Fulgar to George Jestson’s bubble-top flying car is a direct one.
Within just a few years of the Fulgar’s time in the limelight—the photo above features French movie stars Colette Duval and Gil Delamare in a staged promotional photo op—Simca would come under the control of Chrysler before disappearing from the marketplace in the 1970s. —Andrew Wendler
Maserati Boomerang
Auto design icon Giorgetto Giugiaro has created many Maseratis in his career, including the Ghibli, the Bora, and the Merak, but none were more influential or—one imagines—more astonishing than the Boomerang concept. First shown in 1971 at the Turin motor show, the Boomerang was the wildest example of the flying-wedge school of design that would dominate the 1970s. The Boomerang’s form language resonated through many later Guigiaro designs, including the original VW Golf, the Lotus Esprit, the third-generation Maserati Quattroporte, and the DeLorean. The interior, with all the instruments grouped into a round binnacle around which the steering wheel rotates, even more radical and, alas, was destined to remain in the realm of concept cars.
Maserati Boomerang
With mechanicals largely borrowed from the mid-engine Bora, including a 310-hp, 4.7-liter V-8, the Boomerang despite its wild appearance actually was registered for road use. The car has been in private hands since the 1970s, and earlier this year it sold at a Bonhams auction in France for $3.7 million. Although it has appeared at many international concours and other car shows, the Boomerang was perhaps best immortalized as a Matchbox car—in which form fans can get their hands on one for considerably less than $3.7 million. —Joe Lorio
jeep-j-12
Of all the concepts Jeep has cooked up over the years, none tugs at the heartstrings of nostalgia like the Jeep J-12 concept, and that’s exactly the way Jeep planned it. When we drove the J-12 a few years ago, Kyle Evans, the designer of the J-12, told us, “If there was a guiding principal or theme behind the J-12 concept, it was grandpa’s fishing truck.” Built on the proven bones of a Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited, the J-12 is fully operational off-road animal of a concept.
jeep-j-12
Arguably one of the J-12’s most noteworthy features is its first-generation “gladiator” grille and front clip. Constructed largely of carbon fiber, the entire assembly fits over the Wrangler’s existing substructure with little to no modification. It even uses many of the stock bolts and related hardware.
As good as it looks, the J-12 goes even better, as proven by it’s performance on the rugged terrain of Moab, Utah, where the Jeep crew put it through its paces shortly after its unveiling. Powered by stock 285-hp, 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 backed by five-speed automatic transmission, the J-12 employs a pair of ARB air-locker-equipped Dynatrac axles (D-44 front, D-60 rear) and Tom Woods custom driveshafts to spin the 36-inch bias-ply tires.
Sadly, despite its off-road bonafides and relatively stock underpinnings, Jeep tells us this is one concept that will never make production. —Andrew Wendler
American Motors Corporation AMX
In an attempt to sex up its dowdy image in the 1960s, American Motors Corporation introduced the sweet AMX Concept coupe. Proportioned rather differently than the wildly popular Ford Mustang, the AMX had a short wheelbase, a long, flat nose, and a thick, stubby rear end where it carried most of its visual weight. The cantilevered roof effect was created by buttress-style C-pillars and spaghetti-strap-thin A-pillars, imparting a profile view with the tension of an archer’s bow just before release. This concept was powered by AMC’s then-new 290-inch V-8 engine, and featured an open-air, rear “Ramble Seat” for two.
American Motors Corporation AMX
By the time the AMX made it to production as the Javelin in 1968—one of the more underappreciated pony cars of the era—it lost certain features such as its split windshield, full-width pocket grille, and of course, that trick rear seat. Meanwhile, it gained a subtle beltline crease, round headlamps, and (thankfully) an A-pillar. But the concept’s dramatic proportions translated, as did the inset rear window. In this purest expression of the design, however, the AMX is as Sixties as the miniskirt and tie-dye, and as such, is utterly groovy. —Steve Siler
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