Concept cars are awesome. Automakers get to showcase thelatest and greatest features, while at the same time innovating the nextgeneration of vehicle specifications. As cool as concept cars are though, the versionthat eventually makes it to production is usually a watered down shell of whatcould have been the greatest thing ever. An epic concept with a revolutionarycar navigation system that integrates with your smartphone turns into a base production model that you feel lucky they included a car CD playerin. Lame.
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| Lamorghini Spiga concept |
Still, even getting to set eyes on some of these is worthit. Just look at this Lambo Spiga concept. Its wheels look like a revolverchamber. The world is a cooler place because this exists, even if no one willget to drive it. Hopefully they will take feedback from what people like aboutthese cars, and incorporate it into later production models. Even if theydon’t, making concepts allows automakers free reign to design new crazyfeatures and innovate the most cutting edge technology for automobiles today.
Even better,occasionally a company will sell a concept car so at least a tiny handful oflucky people get to drive it around. This was the case with the FerrariAvendator J we wrote about the other day. They only sold the one unit they made–to the tune of 2.8 million dollars – but someone gets to take it home and putit in their garage. Same with FAB Design’s take on the McLaren MP4-12C Terso ondisplay at Geneva this year – they’re making and selling five units, so ahandful of people can create an extra-exclusive cool kids club of vehicles thatstorm troopers drive.
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| These are not the concepts you're looking for. |
All in all, even with the frustration of knowing they won’tmake it to production, concepts are an interesting and necessary fixture in theauto industry to push the limits and discover new technologies. Even if we don’tget the chance to drive these ourselves, at least we can admire them and hopethe features we fall in love with will make it to production someday. How doyou feel about concept cars?
