Not all concept cars go to heaven, or even production. Nile Bijoux looks at some that never made it.
1994 Porsche C88
In the early 1990s, China extended an invitation to carmakers to produce an exclusive, cheap car for its automotive market. Porsche responded with this, the C88. C stands for China and the number 8 is considered lucky there.
The rather bland concept you see here took just four months to build and would have used a 1.6-litre diesel engine mated to a four-speed automatic transmission for motivation. Porsche’s logo is also missing from the car, which shows how proud the German maker was of its econobox. Ultimately, the Chinese government cancelled its project and the C88 was doomed.
2001 Ford Forty-Nine
Ford has been building cars for about two thousand years (it feels) and so has quite a few concepts under its belt. But the Forty-Nine is one of the coolest, and more recent. It’s a homage to the 1949 Ford, a car that is credited with saving the brand after World War II and ushering in modern, streamlined car design.
The Forty-Nine used a 3.9-litre V8 from Jaguar for power, rode on 20-inch chrome wheels and featured round headlights like its namesake. A massive glass roof extended from front to rear and the windscreen wipers were concealed to achieve a smooth appearance. The bullet nose from the original didn’t make the cut, unfortunately.
2004 Toyota Alessandro Volta
In 2004, Toyota was looking for a new halo product after the demise of the A80 Supra in 2002. The Celica and MR-S Spyder were on sale but neither really scratched the itch left behind from the Supra. We know it took another decade or so for Toyota to truly replace the Supra but it made a good go with the Alessandro Volta.
The concept used a 3.3-litre petrol V6 and two electric motors to generate 300kW, a carbon-fibre chassis to keep weight to 1250kg and had all-wheel-drive to boot. Plus, it had butterfly doors which always look great and pushrod suspension to win those arguments at the pub over which car is best.
1995 Honda SSM
Before the S2000 came this, the Honda SSM (Sports Study Model). You can clearly see the styling that ended up on showroom floors as the S2000 but under the skin, things were a bit different. For example, there was no 9000rpm screaming inline-four paired with one of the best manual transmissions ever built.
Instead, there was a five-cylinder making an unknown amount of power paired with the five-speed automatic from the NSX.
Honda’s supercar also lent its aluminium wishbone suspension for both front and rear axles to improve handling.
1984 Ford Maya
Another Ford concept to make this list is the Maya from 1984, which looks a bit like Ford’s pre-emptive retaliation strike against the DMC DeLorean. It features a wedge design typical of the 1080s, pop-up headlights and a mid-mounted V6 making 186kW paired with a fivespeed manual transmission.
The Maya was described as a ‘‘realistic prototype,’’ meaning there was intent at Ford to put it into production, though that never happened. It was quite advanced for the time, with disc brakes at each corner, aluminium independent suspension and a button-heavy steering wheel.