Concept car Totally Explained

Everything about Concept Car totally explained

A concept car or show car is a car prototype made to showcase a concept, new styling, technology and more. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced. General Motors designer Harley Earl is generally credited with inventing the concept, or show, car, and did much to popularize it through its traveling Motorama shows of the 1950s.
Concept cars never go into production directly; in modern times all would have to undergo many changes before the design is finalized for the sake of practicality, safety and cost. Concept cars are often radical in engine or design:

Some use non-traditional, exotic, or expensive materials, ranging from paper to carbon fiber to refined alloys.

Others have unique layouts, such as gullwing doors, 3 or 6 (or more) wheels, or special abilities not usually found on cars. Because of these often impractical or unprofitable leanings, many concept cars never get past scale models, or even drawings in computer design. Other more traditional concepts can be developed into fully drivable (operational) vehicles with a working drivetrain and accessories. The state of most concept cars lies somewhere in between and doesn't represent the final product. A very small proportion of concept cars are functional to any useful extent, most can't move safely at anything above 10 mph.
Inoperative "mock-ups" are usually made of wax, clay, metal, fiberglass, plastic or a combination thereof.
If drivable, the drivetrain is often borrowed from a production vehicle from the same company, or may have defects and imperfections in design. They can also be quite refined, such as General Motors' Cadillac Sixteen Concept (External Link

).
After a concept car's useful life is over, the cars are usually destroyed. Some survive, however, either in a company's museum or hidden away in storage. One unused but operational concept car that languished for years in the North Hollywood, California shop of car customizer George Barris, Ford Motor Company's "Lincoln Futura" from 1954, received a new lease on life as the Batmobile in the Batman series that debuted in 1966 on the ABC Television Network.

Notable Concept cars

Model	Notes
Buick Y-Job	designed in the late 1930s by the famous General Motors designer Harley Earl. This is considered by most to be the first concept car.
Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT	1962 mid-engined experimental prototype
Chevrolet Corvette Mako Shark	Previewed the design of the 1968-1982 production Corvette
Chevrolet Volt	One of the first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle concept cars.
Ford Nucleon	a nuclear-powered car
Ford SYNUS	mimics the modern obsession with safety
General Motors Firebird	a series of gas turbine-powered cars
Holden Efijy	a concept car based around the Holden FJ
MIT Car	The Massachusetts Institute of Technology concept car with Frank Gehry (External Link)
Phantom Corsair	a 1930s concept car, developed by Rust Heinz
Pontiac Bonneville Special	Pontiac's first 2-seater sportscar that debuted at the 1954 Motorama
Pontiac Club de Mer	Pontiac's all stainless steel sportscar that debuted at the 1956 Motorama
Porsche 989	Porsche's first 4-door car, a predecessor of the Porsche Panamera
Volvo YCC	the first car designed entirely by women
Lancia Megagamma	the prototype for the modern MPV (minivan)
Alfa Romeo BAT cars	1950s aerodynamic studies by Bertone

Further Information

Get more info on 'Concept Car'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://concept_car.totallyexplained.com">Concept car Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.