Concept Cars

Chevrolet got the performance right for its first-ever mid-engine production car but in doing so, it kind of missed the whole point of what a well-made interior should look and feel like. But what if the carmaker came up with a next-generation C9 that had a more European flavor and looked like Leyang Bai’s design study?

Automakers are rushing to show their electric concept models to the public and let them know to expect from the brand in the future. We saw the Lexus LF-Z Electrified just a couple of days back, and now, we have one from Genesis. Called the X Concept, the Genesis product is made its debut in Los Angeles and is said to present “Genesis’ sustainable luxury in the form of an EV-based high-performance GT coupe concept car”. Fancy, eh?

Lexus has been an advocate of electrification for a long time now. At present, it has nine hybrid electric vehicles in its lineup. In 2019, the company announced its ‘Lexus Electrified’ vision and we are now seeing what the company meant by it. The Japanese automaker plans to have 20 new models by 2025, and it all starts with the debut of its LF-Z Electrified concept.

It was June 23, 1989, when Tim Burton’s noir take on the story of Batman hit the cinemas. Michael Keaton played Bruce Wayne, Kim Basinger was Vicki Vale, and that movie’s Batmobile was, well, probably one of the coolest Batmobiles to ever serve the Dark Knight. So, what if we told you that somewhere in the UK, someone built a working replica powered by a V-8?

108,549 cars. That’s how many Hyundai was able to sell Stateside in the year 1992 when it was offering just three cars for sale with the Elantra being the new kid on the block. Something was needed to boost sales and fix the company’s dimming public image. That something was a swooping speedster named HCD-1 that stole the headlines at the Detroit Auto Show. It was the breath of fresh air that the Korean maker dearly needed.

In case you’re not up to date with news coming from Maranello, Ferrari hasn’t dropped plans to launch an SUV. At the same time, the Prancing Horse is rather tight lipped about its future Urus fighter, which has left enough leeway for pixel manipulators to roam freely on the fields of creativity. The results aren’t always eye-pleasing.

Concept cars are tricky to digest. On one hand, they delight the eyes as they preview a carmaker’s (often spectacular) path for the future and on the other, they most often than not leave us disappointed at their lack of fruition. Most concept cars do not get turned into road-going cars. Sadly, that is the case of the Porsche Renndienst minivan. And the reason is simpler than you would imagine.

BMW is a name mostly associated with pure driving pleasure - in fact, it was even their slogan at one point. Even though they are making some pretty controversial cars, in the eyes of the fans, there’s no denying the fact, they’ve made some epic cars, over the years. One of the most epic BMW cars, however, was one that was never sold – the BMW M8 E31. Despite BMW’s decision not to put the M8 E31 into production, there are a lot of interesting facts surrounding it.

Design-wise, cars have come a long way. So much so that, for as long as we can remember, cars have been drawing inspiration from various places, such as animals, shapes, other cars, and even having the equivalent of human eyelids – case in point being the Lamborghini Miura. However, today we are talking about a much more unremarkable vehicle.

Penned by Fabrizio Giugiaro, son of the great Giorgetto Giugiaro, at the age of just 26, the BMW Nazca M12 came to life as a working prototype in 1991 only to be followed by an evolved version in 1992, called Nazca C2. It was supposed to replace the M1, but BMW pulled the plug and it never saw production. So, how about a modern-design BMW Nazca C2?

Ford’s plans with the Bronco involve selling a lot of aftermarket bits and bobs on top of the actual cars. This is a move inspired by what Jeep has been doing with Mopar and going further, it is possible that some customers might decide to tune their Broncos to ever greater extents. For those, Chip Foose has an interesting design proposal.

We all look back with nostalgia at rally racing’s notorious rivalry between Mitsubishi and Subaru, more specifically between the Impreza and Lancer Evo. Few people know that Mazda, as it sat on the sidelines, concocted a plan to join the battle on WRC’s grueling stages and even built a prototype to highlight its intentions. Meet the 2000 Mazda 626 MPS Concept.

As soon as the world caught glimpse of the first Cyberpunk screenshots and the cars included in the bug-plagued game, the internet’s pixel manipulators saw they creativity kick in. The result was a long list of eye-candy design studies that tried to forecast what sort of cars we will be driving 20, 30 years from now. Enter the HR-X Delsol.

Although the Mazda RX-7 spawned three generations, it never got a shooting brake variant. And for good reason, since Mazda conceived and developed the RX-7 as a rotary-engine sports car that favored balance, lightness, and nimbleness over anything else.

Some markets got a 2+2 interior layout, and the RX-7 could even be had in convertible form (namely the second-gen FC model). However, the third-gen RX-7 FD was a coupe-only affair. Then came Khyzyl Saleem.

The automotive world is one of the biggest communities. It attracts individuals from all backgrounds and some of them become emissaries for the car culture. Khyzyl Saleem, also known as The_Kyza, is one such individual. A concept artist, automotive designer, and a car lover, he has created some of the most epic car renderings you will ever see. Khyzyl is not the only one who’s doing car renderings, but there is something that sets him apart.

We are not saying that here at TopSpeed we have a knack for Porsche or for Khyzyl Saleem. That is easily noticeable from our weekly coverage.

It just so happens that occasionally, we get slapped with a couple of digitally-tweaked images that are so ridiculous that upon closer inspection, they somehow gain awesome status. It’s a must-share situation, really.

It was just a couple of weeks ago when Chip Foose took to YouTube in an attempt - successful, if you want our two cents - to restyle the new mid-engine Corvette in a way that pays tribute to its predecessor and now we see another pixel manipulator trying to improve the C8’s design. And we really like what we’re seeing.

Zagato is the modern equivalent of a coachbuilder and is based in Milan, Italy. It’s been in business since 1919, and over the years it has established itself as a creator of very dramatic looking cars. It has its own design center, and all its creations have a certain Zagato look that you can start to recognize once you’ve seen a wider selection of their cars.

This look has been continued and refined over the decades, and you can spot the visual links between their very latest creations and ones from half a century ago. They have made so many different cars, that it wouldn’t do them justice to try to pick the most notable ones from their nearly 100-year history, so in order to keep things fairly concise for the purpose of this article, I’ll be trying to pick the most striking and interesting ones from the past 20 years.