Concepts : Car News And Reviews

It’s often the case that when carmakers reveal a concept car, they look to the past before they look to the future. This helps give their designs a grounding in the brand’s heritage. That’s exactly what happened with the 1993 Aston Martin Lagonda Vignale concept.

The current Nissan line isn’t exactly exciting. The only performance cars the manufacturer offers are the rather dated 370Z and the awesome, but expensive, GT-R. Other than those two vehicles, we’ve got economy cars, crossovers, SUVs, and pickups.

Holden showed of the beautiful Holden Torana GTR-X concept car in 1970, but the Australian car company first created the Holden Hurricane, a concept car that debuted in 1969. The experimental car was Holden’s first concept car and had a distinctive wedge shape with a total height of just 38 inches.

Stunt and race car driver Ken Block has amassed quite the collection of special vehicles for his Gymkhana series. He’s driven everything from a 1978 Escort Mk2 to a 1965 Mustang to a lowered F-150 pickup truck, all tricked out with crazy body mods and high output engines.

I’ve often said that the 1980s and 1990s were the worst decades for automotive design and performance. So many of the cars produced in that era were either boring boxes or bubbly blobs, often with anemic drivetrains.

Tesla’s upcoming electric Cybertruck drew both cheers and jeers when it broke cover. With its primitive stainless steel body, its looks have divided opinions on whether it’s something a first grader would have come up with, or an innovative new approach to vehicle design.

AMC (American Motors Corporation) is best remembered for its strange, quirky and oddly loveable 1970s cars like the Gremlin and the Pacer. But it also made some sportier cars, like the Javelin and its muscular cousin, the AMX.

The Pontiac Aztek is arguably one of the ugliest vehicles ever created. While the early take on a crossover certainly wasn’t Pontiac’s proudest design moment, the brand did make lots of great sports cars over the years, with the 1970s Firebird Trans Am being one of the most iconic of its cars.

Back in 1983, Nissan challenged itself to look forward to what their cars might look like in the 21st century. The concept car they came up with not only had an unusual design, but an unconventional drivetrain to go with.

The Volkswagen Type 2 bus is one of the most iconic and collectible vehicles of all time. It was quirky and slow, but incredibly charming, and actually pretty versatile. Now, Volkswagen has transformed one of these classic microvans into a modern electric vehicle. The e-BULLI concept vehicle started out life as a 1966 Type 1 Samba bus, and from the outside, it looks much like it did when it rolled off the assembly line in Hanover, Germany more than 50 years ago.

Volvo EV spin-off Polestar already has some production vehicles in the pipeline, including the Polestar One and Polestar Two. Now, we have a concept vehicle that looks towards the future of the brand. Like the Polestar Two, the Polestar Precept is a 5-door fastback. The Precept strikes out in a new design direction that’s less derivative of Volvo than the production cars.

These days, the use of nuclear energy is pretty much limited to power plants and submarines, but there was a time when it was thought the controversial power source could be used to drive our cars.

Hot on the heels of its retro-infused 5th generation Mustang (which lived from 2005 to 2014), Ford showed off this gorgeous vision for a future pony car, designed by Fabrizio Giugiaro of Italdesign Giugiaro. This one-off Mustang concept was unabashedly European in style, with its Lambo-esque scissor doors, and beautifully sculpted, curvaceous rear end.

I’ve always wanted one of those concept sports cars that was lifted a bit and tricked out for rally racing. I think they’re some of the cooler looking vehicles out there, even if they’re not the most nimble on a paved track.

While most of today’s concept cars envision improvements to the driving experience itself, on occasion vehicles are seen as having a broader impact on one’s lifestyle. That’s the case with this unusual Toyota concept from the early 1970s.