Reader Poll: What cool concept car should have made production?
Let’s face it, concept cars are usually a pointless exercise involving manufacturers throwing a ton of money at some arty designers who know nothing about cars. The ‘car of the future’ which they then create has no wheels, no steering wheel and operates on anti-gravitational technology which is yet to be invented. In other words, the ‘car of the future’ resembles a car about as much as James Gent’s beard. Sometimes, however, they get it right.
Take the new BMW i8 which started life as a concept that was never destined to be built. Such was the positive public response that BMW are putting it in to iProduction and, amazingly, the final design has remained largely faithful to the original iConcept. The BMW i8 is a rare exception to the rule even when the design concept has been realistically possible. Other feasible concepts have stirred a trouser-full of longing in the public and yet manufacturers seem reluctant to put them in to production.
For this crankandpiston Reader Poll the question is: What cool concept car should have made production?. We are limiting the selection to concepts in recent history which also stood a very real chance of being made. As cool as the awesome 1945 Bugatti Veyron by RC82 Workchop is, it was a photoshop render by a talented artist and did not have the backing of a large manufacturer. Our poll is therefore based on concepts that coulda, shoulda and oughta have been made. But manufacturers didn’t deliver.
The 2008 BMW M1 Homage Concept has influenced the design of the i8 (a little). There is no doubting though that this Giorgio Giugiaro-designed car of awesome should have seen production in its own right. Built to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the original M1, the only reason we can think that it isn’t for sale on a forecourt near you is some strange strain of Bavarian madness which afflicts BMW upper management.
The Mazda Furai, which follows a tradition of naming sports cars after winds, is powered by 20B 3-rotor Wankel engine and based on the Courage Compétition C65 Le Mans Prototype. The Furai is a fully functional concept and is regularly wheeled out on track to put its 450bhp to good use. That just means Mazda are even more annoying for not putting it in to production.
The Jaguar C-X75 also falls in to the same category of manufacturer teasing with no happy ending. If you don’t build it, we can’t buy it even if we want it. Obviously, not many of us could afford it but the argument is still valid.
