In years past, car designers and makers could only speculate what future cars would look like. And as we’ve seen is movies like the Star Wars and in French space comic books, we’ve witnessed the abundance of bizarre futuristic concept car designs. Here are some of the best examples of European concept cars from the 1970s and 1980s.
Citroen Karin 1980 was built for elegance and grace combined with that famous French non-conformism. It debuted at the 1980 Parish Motor Show with its sensational looks and pyramidal/trapezoidal design. Its interior was particularly designed to have all the controls right at the driver’s fingertips. It also featured a few on-board computers.
Concept cars of the 1980s already had steering wheels with built-in controls like the one in the American-designed 1983 Buick Questor concept car.
… and in this Ital-Design 1984 Ford Maya concept car:
Lamborghini Athon concept cars had more notable steering wheels. Don’t forget to take a closer look on it gear stick which closely resembles a knife handle.
Judging by the looks of various concept cars in the 1970s, triangles were definitely trending during that time. One examples is the 1970 Lancia Bertone Stratos.
Meanwhile, Japan has been producing its own exceptional, original, sometimes strange-looking and bizarre concept cars like this Toyota FCX-80 from 1979.
The Insomnia, a 1979 Dome Zero P2, was launched during the 48th Geneva Auto Show and was set to participate in the 1979 motor race “24 Hours of Le Mans.”
This Dome Zero has inspired the Transformers Classics series figure of Transformers Generation 1 character Hot Rod.
Meet the Maserati Boomerang of 1979, which is the Italian equivalent of the Dome Zone.
The Alfa Romeo Navajo (right) was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1976.
Lastly, the Alfa Romeo Carabo. This beautiful art piece was designed by Federico B. Alliney (the artist behind the scenery in James Cameron’s “Avatar” movie.
