Concept Car guides

When you think of iconic, classic American cars, Cadillac Coupe DeVille, Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Corvette, and Dodge Challenger are, often, some of the first to come to mind. And while each of them has had their fair share of special editions, we can’t help but wonder what classic American cars can be like, with a European twist. Whether it’s their design or an unusual engineering solution, these are the most obscure American classic cars ever to exist.

The Peugeot Oxia is a high-performance supercar concept that the French Automaker conceived back in the late 80s. It pays homage to the company’s past and certainly was a technological revelation well ahead of its time. It was a supercar that would have gone up against cars like the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959 had it actually gone into production.

To put that into perspective, the hi-tech Oxia had north of 600 horsepower, along with four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. These specs might seem normal now, but back in the ’80s, they were unheard of. Let’s dwell a little deeper to find out just what the Oxia was all about.

Nowadays, hybrid supercars are as common as a VW Jetta. Well, not quite, but you get the idea. Pretty much anyone into cars can name at least a few hybrid supercars off the top of his head – Ferrari SF90 Stradale, Lamborghini Sian, McLaren Speedtail, Aston Martin Valkyrie, Koenigsegg Regera, and others. What you may not know is that back when hybrid supercars were even considered, Toyota beat everyone to it. They did so with the Toyota Alessandro Volta, and this is everything we know about it.

Zagato is the modern equivalent of a coachbuilder and is based in Milan, Italy. It’s been in business since 1919, and over the years it has established itself as a creator of very dramatic looking cars. It has its own design center, and all its creations have a certain Zagato look that you can start to recognize once you’ve seen a wider selection of their cars.

This look has been continued and refined over the decades, and you can spot the visual links between their very latest creations and ones from half a century ago. They have made so many different cars, that it wouldn’t do them justice to try to pick the most notable ones from their nearly 100-year history, so in order to keep things fairly concise for the purpose of this article, I’ll be trying to pick the most striking and interesting ones from the past 20 years.

Automakers, in general, often make decisions that change the course of their respective histories. We don’t often see these decisions in public, but every so often, concept cars play the role of avatars, giving us a peek at what could’ve been had a specific automaker decided to greenlight some of these concepts. There’s a laundry list of concept cars that never made it to production — and probably altered the history of some brands — but we’re here to shine the spotlight on one particular concept that could’ve altered the trajectory of the automaker that developed it. This is the Nissan Mid4, an experimental sports car that Nissan developed in the mid-1980s to compete against the Ferraris and Porsches of that era. Two concepts were introduced, but neither made it to production, leaving everyone with a big bowl of “what if” on their hands. What if Nissan launched the Mid4 as intended? What would the automaker look like now? We’ll never know the answers to these questions, but, rest assured, Nissan wouldn’t be the Nissan that we known now if the Mid4 came to life.

Concept cars are awesome. They not only show us the future of car brands but also give designers the opportunity to unleash their creativity, giving us some jaw-dropping automotive marvels. Due to the countless regulations, however, production models often look significantly different than the prototypes we see at car shows.

That said, every now and then we get to see concepts that actually come true with a design very close or sometimes identical to the initially-intended. Here are 10 concept cars that made great transitions to production.

Concept cars are often the result of an automaker’s desire to showcase possibilities. Very rarely, though, do these possibilities translate to reality. Some concepts get used as springboards for future production models. Some get used as blueprints for future technologies. But more often than not, a lot of concept cars get sent back to the shadows, never to be heard from again. It’s a shame because the concept cars on this list didn’t deserve that fates they received. These concepts should’ve been turned into production models. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, none of them did, and all we’re left with our thoughts of what could’ve been.

Over the years many high-performance cars have come and gone, some more memorable than others. In the 1960s, Ford created the GT40 – a LeMans-winning race car, which has achieved legendary status. Since then, every decade, Ford has been trying to come up with a worthy successor. The 1970s GT70 aimed to recapture some of that essence in a smaller form, while the 1995 GT90 wend balls-out, chasing the limits of what was possible. There is another attempt in the 1980s when Ford started returning to making performance versions of their streetcars. Here are 10 facts about the forgotten Ford GN34 prototype.

The old continent is home to some of the oldest automotive manufacturers. Since the late 19th century, they’ve been churning out legendary vehicles, many of which have become the poster car of their era.

Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari F40, Porsche 911, Jaguar F-type, McLaren F1, and many others. Each of them has its own contribution to automotive culture. There are those, however, that never made it into production. Nevertheless, they are some of the most epic concepts from European manufacturers that, sadly, never saw the light of day.

Asian manufacturers have long been known to revolutionize the industry, with outside of the box thinking. This, more often than not, results in some pretty interesting concept cars which often steal the show. Sadly, for a car to enter into production it needs to pass certain tedious requirements, like how big the windows or side mirrors should be, or how high the headlights should be positioned.

Needless to say, this makes the job of both the designers and engineers more difficult, which is why many of the Asian concept cars on this list were never mass-produced.

Often, car companies like to give us hints at their future through their concepts. Sometimes, these prototypes aim to break established boundaries, while others pay homage to iconic models from the past and show us how a modern-day version could look like. Since these cars are not required to cover all tedious requirements a production version has to, the designers can go crazy with their creativity.

It’s no surprise then that concept cars are often the biggest head turners at car shows. Although every car brand has its own portfolio of interesting concepts, some of the most epic automotive art comes from the USA. Sadly, for one reason or another, many of these aesthetic and technological marvels remained prototypes. Here are some of the greatest American cars that never made it into production.

Alright, we get it, the great Enzo Ferrari believed aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines but when you’re trying to move an object with as little energy as possible, a streamlined body is crucial to the task. So whether they’ve been built to compete in green races or with the intent to serve the masses or break speed records, these care are the ultimate masters of aerodynamics.