Concept Vehicles

These are some of my favorite concept cars with links to where you can learn more about them.

Renault Trezor  Renault.co.uk

Okay, the Trezor has the best soundtrack in their video, no question. The best feature on this concept car is the body. It looks sleek, fast, and expensive. Looks expensive, but the reality is that this car wouldn’t be. Sure it looks stylish, but the negative features would bring the price down to suburban levels. Like many concept cars, the Trezor has an impractical door style. The entire top folds up and forward. You’d never be able to drive it in the rain—or you’d be afraid to get out unless you were in a garage. Also, because the interior is so bowl-shaped, it looks like it would collect water. Who would want to drive around while immersed in water? The red windshield looks cool in a video, but it would probably give some people a migraine to be subjected to the colored light on long trips.

Lamborghini Terzo Millenio  Lamborghini.com

This one doesn’t just look fantastic, it boasts some genius ideas. Batteries are stored in and around the base of the vehicle, to distribute the weight more evenly. Other ideas are quality, but they only seem to be ideas. Lamborghini car company wants to develop systems to capture and create and store more electricity. They’ve designed the wheels to look like generators, but from what I’ve studied on this one, the wheels don’t really generate, they just look like they could. The body is a composite (carbon fiber) that utilizes low voltages to “heal”. It’s such a low-slung car it would need that sort of talent. I could imagine cringing at every bump in the road while driving this beautiful and fanciful machine.

Audi Ai Trail  Audi.com

The simple design of the Audi Ai Trail is somewhat better than many of the fancier concept cars. I could imagine it being a little longer and able to seat more people. They’ve saved some weight by making seats out of a hammock material. Electric motors are good, but they’re not great for heavy loads, so Audi tried to shave off some weight with the seating. The design of the Ai Trail is high off the ground for rugged terrain. The one design they came up with that is debatable is the drone headlight idea. Drone headlights would be fine in open spaces, but not in forested areas. Trees, especially tall trees, would block out all the light from a drone.

Ferrari Pininfarina Modulo  Modulo on YouTube

The Ferrari Modulo is one of the first beautiful concept cars from way back in the 20th century. It is one of the first concept cars to have the open top design. Again, the open top would be no good in wet weather, though it might draw attention at car shows. This one looked super cool. The inadequate science of the times made the designers stick a V12 in the car. The V12 engine is typically too big for its own good. Heavier than it was powerful, the V12 couldn’t brag about miles per gallon, ever. You could get better gas mileage from pickup trucks of the same era. We’re talking 18 miles per gallon for trucks of that time, while the engine in the Modulo got closer to 8 miles per gallon. So basically, this concept car just looked amazing. The wheels were almost hidden to make a casual observer think the car was hovering. Overall, the shape of the Modulo might give someone the idea of sighting a UFO. If the “pilot” emerged with a green mask, no one would be surprised—shocked maybe, but not surprised.

Jeep Hurricane Hurricane on YouTube

Yeah, baby! This beauty is the king of cool. It was introduced in 2005. The articulating wheels are only the second most amazing thing about this concept vehicle. (See the video.) The low top design is the best, though it was never used in any vehicle in the Jeep lineup. Headroom in Wranglers, and Wagoneers always seems much higher than it needs to be, so the Hurricane appeared to be an advance for some of the most popular off-road vehicles ever. The box design of most Jeeps is a wind trap. It’s inefficient and consumes fuel. Borrowing from the Wrangler many of the great features, the Hurricane design introduced a button start option, front and back wheels that could articulate in perpendicular directions, and some sweet lift. It has beautiful distance from tire to body and from body to ground level. It has good distance front and rear for tire traction without body interruption, and with what looks to me like a wider stance than the standard Wrangler, which admittedly could be advantage or disadvantage depending on the shape of the climb. The engines Jeep used in the years around 2005 were adequate climbers so the Hurricane is probably an off-road dream.