The coolest concept cars of all time

Concept cars can be a tricky, erm...concept to understand. Manufacturers spend a fortune crafting these exotic-looking creations, all weird and wonderful shapes and textures, then make a big song and dance about them. Then nothing. Never seen again. Like Psy. (Him who did Gangnam Style. Also the follow up 'Gentleman', you'll definitely recall.)
But there’s more to concept cars than flash-in-the-pan design madness just for the clicks. They're used to trial new approaches to design - exterior styling, interior innovations, new technology and engineering tricks- to see whether they might be suitable for production cars. Yes, some concept cars DO make the transition from show stand to showroom almost intact (like the original Audi TT), but usually they're more about the underlying ideas and innovations. Here are some of our favourites from over the years.

The Jaguar Type 00 is almost certainly the most famous concept car ever made. It’s one of the VERY few concept cars that the wider public actually know about. It’s not even because of the car, either. Hardly anyone would have cared about Jaguar's massive pink monstrosity had it not been for a baffling teaser campaign beforehand that basically split the internet in two. You’ll never see anything like this on the road, ever (thankfully, you might think), but hey, the best concept cars are usually like that. Outrageous, implausible and…erm… woke, apparently.

Revealed at the 2014 Geneva motor show, on the face of it the Volvo YCC (Your Concept Car) is just another Scandinavian concept. But the significance lies in the fact that it quickly became known as "the car for women". Why? Because - gasp - it was designed by women. It includes features like holes in the headrests for ponytails, and removable textile seat and door panels to change up the colour and pattern of the interior décor on a whim. Patronising? Or actually quite cool? We say the latter, but the contentious nature of an argument about cars designed specifically for women hasn't gone away, which is why this concept continues to be relevant today.

A handsome-looking roadster with two doors, two seats and a 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine, the Tango was a massively appealing prospect for buyers - the perfect embodiment of Seat’s sporty, youth-centric character. And, being a Seat, it would definitely have been keenly priced. Sadly, after much deliberation, parent company Volkswagen decided instead to produce a people carrier, because people carriers sold better back in the day. Sad times. Unless you loved the Seat Altea, obviously.

Unlike most concept cars, the Furai was a machine that went as fast as it looked. It was revealed at the end of 2007 as the last in a series of concept cars collectively called Nagare, which would go on to influence the look of future production Mazdas. The Furai was built on the chassis of a Le Mans race car, and powered by a 460 horsepower rotary Wankel engine. It looked mean and futuristic, and the designer hoped it would make full production (and even race at Le Mans), but it wasn’t to be. Less than a year after it was revealed, the Furai was destroyed by fire while being filmed for Top Gear. The big idiots.

“Azubi” means “trainee” in German, and so Skoda’s Azubi Project is – or was – a way of giving student designers a chance to design some stuff. The only rule is that each year the resulting car must be based on an existing Skoda model. Since 2014 they’ve created the Skoda Citijet (a two-seat convertible based on the Citigo), the Funstar (a pick-up based on the Fabia), the Atero (a coupe based on the Rapid Spaceback), the Element (an electric beach-buggy version of the Citigo) and the Sunroq (a roofless SUV based on the Karoq). Despite the differences between the Azubi cars, a few details seem to come up every year: LEDs all over the place, glitter, a huge sound system, bright colours and a noisy exhaust. There hasn’t been one since 2020. We’d like another.

In the words of the great Lonnie Urquart, used car salesman turned assistant to Mike Bassett’s England football team, “what’s a flipping Opel when it’s at home?” It’s a European Vauxhall. So, now we’ve cleared that up, what you’re looking at here is what Vauxhall wanted you to think a second Insignia would look like. But as you now know, it didn’t turn out that way at all. What a shame, because if Opel/Vauxhall had produced a family car anything like this sleek, gullwing doored coupe-estate-type-thing… well, it would have been quite good, right?

Nobody at the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show had any idea that soon they’d basically be able to buy the Audi Le Mans concept car they were seeing for the first time. It was stunning, futuristic, and unlike anything Audi had ever produced. The width… the glass rear engine cover… those side blade thingys! And when the production R8 turned up a mere three years later, it had all those things. Blurring the lines between day-to-day coupe and legit supercar, a 4.2 V8 or a 5.2 V10 sat behind the driver, and it utterly transformed Audi’s image.