Holden Hurricane concept car

Cars of tomorrow

Japanese concept cars

Photos: 50+ years of Japanese concept cars ::: Pink Tentacle

Wolfrace Sonic

Here's a new addition to my concept cars column: The Wolfrace Sonic is totally awesome and had been my favorite in those car card games in the eighties. Not only does it look like a modern version of the Batmobile, it also has 6 wheels and a terrific cockpit with all kinds of launch buttons. Sweet!

Les 6 roues - oto6

Concept cars of the 1980s

Latest installment in our ongoing series about concept cars, in which we covered the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s concept cars so far. As amazing as the 1980s were regarding design, in concept car design I find most models remarkably undistinguished and generic, not at all like the seventies with all those bold ideas. There are some exceptions though, such as the above-pictured Ford Cockpit from 1981. As a plastic commuter car on three wheels it certainly looks strange but somehow cool. (By the way, a bit similar approach was chosen by the Daihatsu Trek from 1985, which is a one-seater offroad vehicle that's convertible to a sleeping cell. Neat.)

Carstyling.ru: 1981 Ford Cockpit (Ghia)


Yes, this 1986 Corvette Indy is a sleek car, as with most of these cars from the 80ies here the real show is inside the cockpit though, check out the super sophisticated spaceship consoles inside. Why don't we have car interiors like this by now?

Carstyling.ru: 1986 Chevrolet Corvette Indy


Another really futuristic vehicle. What's really cool here is that you can see the kickass engine through the tinted glass in the back. Also this car has no doors, the canopy would open and the steering wheel flip out so you can enter. Another great and functional cockpit with a ..hm radar? Missile crosshairs? I have no clue.

Carstyling.ru: 1985 Buick Wildcat


Uh la la, this one screams bad-ass for a couple of miles. Boxy, flat and edgy, it's a pretty bold design. Only one drivable vehicle was ever made.

Carstyling.ru: 1980 Aston Martin Bulldog


Ford Probe was eventually made into a regular sports car, but the design studies went some different ways: the later ones such as the IV and V had aerodynamics as a top priority and excelled in this respect.

Carstyling.ru: 1982 Ford Probe IV


If I could choose this would be my everyday vehicle to go to the supermarket. Ultra-flat, folding doors, aggressive red interior with ultra cool LED displays, GPS system (?), CD player, mega-sleek dashboard, what do you want more?

Carstyling.ru: 1984 Peugeot Quasar

Postscript: One of the most striking designs from the 1980s is the trapezoidal Citroen Karin which we've featured on the blog before.

Concept cars of the 1970

So after I showed you some nice pictures of concept cars from the 1950s and 1960s, let's move on into the 1970s. First up is the real deal, the 1970 Ferrari 512 Modulo designed by Pininfarina.

GUEST BLOG: DAVID BEASLEY >>THE PININFARNIA LEGEND - Speedhunters


Cool stuff here: another one from 1970, the Vauxhall SRV (Styling Research Vehicle) was strictly a concept vehicle that never had an actual drivable version produced. It was designed with some unusual features: while only a little over 100cm high, it was a comfortable four seater, and had also lots of fancy stuff like adjustable spoiler, fuel distribution control for adjusting of handling, etc.

Vauxhall SRV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Oh yes my boys, so good. It's a 1970 Mercedes C111-II.. the German makers were really strong in the seventies! Cool orange, cool 350 horsepower.. what else you asking for? UPDATE: Just saw that Scott Hansen posted a number of great photos of this car over on his ISO50 blog.

Concept Cars - Mercedes C-111


This is the other German entry here, a 1972 BMW Turbo. Simple but influential--many sports cars of today still feature similar looks.

Concept Cars - BMW Turbo


Italdesign put out some real cool stuff, too. First up the concept for a small 2-seater Alfa Romeo, the 1971 Italdesign Alfasud Caimano. Especially likable: the Wipeout-style fat stylized logo on the hood, that's waaay fancy.

Concept Cars - Italdesign Alfasud Caimano


No way getting around this one: the 1972 Italdesign Maserati Boomerang. Flat, sleek, see-through--a real stopper.

Concept Cars - Italdesign Maserati Boomerang


The Nissan Dome Zero from 1978 goes very much the same way, and does everything right too. So stylish you wouldn't want to stop looking at it.

Concept Cars - Dome-0


By the way, Nissan put out another cool concept car in the seventies, and that's the honorable mention for this week: the Nissan 126X from 1971. Yes, this looks kinda odd compared to the others here. It's like KITT beamed back into the 1950s with a smooth finish, really a bit out of time here. Anyway, everythings awesome on this page! Let's hope we see the same degree of greatness with the 1980s feature.

Concept Cars - Nissan 126 X

Concept cars of the 1960s

After the 1950s concept cars I give you the 60ies edition. Here things start to get a bit exciting. First up we have a Bertone Alfa Romeo Carabo, less than one meter high, and only one prototype of this baby was ever built. Hell and yes!

Concept Cars - Bertone Carabo


Oh yes. This is a 1965 Chevrolet Mako Shark II. Really nice in its first edition from 1962 already, the later version depicted here is just about the hottest car you can imagine. Yummy!

Carroantigo.com: Carros Conceitos


O.S.I. made some amazing cars back in the day. Their Alfa Romeo Scarabeo from 1966 was nice but the real killer is the Alpine Silver Fox from 1967. With a very strange body this looks more like a nautical vehicle than a car. I remember in my old supercar card games from the 1980s, this was one of the most badass cards you could get.

Concept Cars - O.S.I. Silver Fox


And another Chevrolet: this one from 1969 is called Manta Ray and you can see why immediately, this lead to the development of the truly amazing Corvette XP-882. Hot hot hot! Also stay tuned for the 1970s edition next week.

Carroantigo.com: Carros Conceitos

UPDATE: This may not be forgotten: 1968 Ferrari Berlinetta.

Concept cars of the 1950s

Niccccce stuff: actually the real cool designs came around in the 1970s (in my opinion, that is), but there are a few notable examples of funky concept cars from the fifties: the Lincoln Futura (on which the original Batmobile is based on), the Ford Nucleon (yes, that's the car that was supposed to be powered by a nuclear reactor. Not pictured here as only models exist), the Chevrolet Corvette (1957! way ahead of its time), and the GM Firebird (the car that looks like a jet fighter). Stay tuned for the 1960s edition next week..

Carroantigo.com: Carros Conceito

Citroen Karin

Concept car built for the 1980 Paris salon by Trevor Fiore. Can you say Tron car?

Citroënët: Karin a reverie