Thursday, July 15, 2010

Cool Concept Cars

You can find 20 examples HERE. These are my favorites.


Few concept cars encapsulated the jet age better than Ford's FX-Atmos, which was unveiled to gasps of awe at the 1954 Chicago motor show. If you were a Jetsons wannabe, the FX-Atmos would have been just perfect.


The Modulo was the stuff of dreams, but a nightmare to the engineers developing it. Virtually nothing on the car could be converted to production, from the canopy roof to its enclosed wheels (how did it turn?). Indeed, the Modulo's design introduced a mass of problems requiring intricate engineering at great cost.


The Pod detected its driver's pulse and perspiration rate to relax them, by changing the colour of its lighting and wagging its tail (an antenna on the back) - which were more likely to wind the driver up than placate them.


The Senso took into account the driver's pulse and driving behaviour, then adjusted the music, interior lighting and even the fragrances to suit. As a result, it could soothe a frustrated driver or pep up a tired one.


A concept so far removed from reality that it was in another galaxy; the Eclectic produced its own power, with in-built solar panels and a wind turbine. The problem was, it couldn't generate enough power to be truly usable.


Built in conjunction with crazy Swiss car builder Franco Sbarro, the Assystem was billed as "an intelligent city car". But that diamond wheel formation guaranteed an ugly body shell - and this car redefined the word ugly.


Any car that packs the 444-hp 4.7-litre V8 of the 8C Competizione has to be something special, but the Pandion was so much more than a rebodied Alfa. Its doors - all 3.6 m of them - ran almost the whole length of the car.

3 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Those are wild! And you're right, most are impractical.

D.I. Felipe González said...

I love the Jetson's look. It's the future they promised us when we were kids, but never arrived.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Nope, never delivered. They can make squeezable bacon and sammich in the can but no jetson car or cheap jet pack.