Old Concept Cars That Still Look Great Today

A life of a concept car has only two distinct possibilities, it could spawn a production version that resembles it or it can go the company museum and never make it to the dealership. Here is a pair of concept cars from the past that generated a lot of buzz back in their day for their excellent styling. While a lot of concept cars look tremendous when they debut these two famous concept cars still look great enough to make a 2013 model year production version for the streets.

Ford GT90

Unveiled at the 1995 North American International Auto Show the GT90 was the 1990s update on the classic Le Mans winning Ford GT40 of the late 1960s. Backing up its extreme supercar styling was a 720 horsepower twin-turbo V12. While the GT90 never made it into production its "Edge" styling with sharp triangular shapes influenced Ford design in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the last pre-retro Mustang and first generation Focus are good examples. It wasn't until 2005 and the Ford GT that a true Ford supercar was born. While the closest anyone got to driving the GT90 was Need For Speed II, its design still looks great today and with few modern touches and updates would make an excellent halo car for Ford even today.

Click on the photo to see the GT90 from all angles.

Volkswagen Microbus

Once again the North American International Auto Show was the place for the Microbus concept debut in 2001. Featuring styling twenty times more adventurous and exciting than any minivan before it was immediately a crowd favorite. Unlike Ford with the GT90, Volkswagen was actually considering making the retro inspired Microbus into a production version. Unfortunately Volkswagen scrapped the project in 2005 and instead started selling a rebadged Dodge Caravan as the Routan in the states. Fortunately it looks like Volkswagen might be regretting its decision as it showed a 7/10th version of an updated Microbus concept called the Bulli in Geneva this year. While the Bulli might make it to production as a Kia Soul size competitor it wouldn't be nearly as cool as a real full size Microbus. With the Routan experiencing only mild sales maybe the Microbus has a chance as a second generation Routan. One can only hope. Click the image below to see more.

Vote on a Ford GT Sucessor

The original Ford GT40 was a four time Le Mans winning race car in the late 1960s and still stands as one of the most iconic Le Mans racers of all time. Naturally when Ford decided to build a super car in the twenty first century they went with a reborn GT40. Built in 2005 and 2006 the Ford GT arrived on the scene with a tremendous amount of hype from the general public and the automotive press, fortunately for Ford the GT was able to live up to the hype with its outstanding performance. As it's been over five years since the last GT rolled of the assembly line it appears that Ford is once again looking at producing a supercar* to compete with the world's best. Take a look at these three sketches and head on over to Road & Track to vote for you favorite. My vote goes to the silver Ford GT by Radovan Varicak.






*Road&Track thinks that Ford may build a GT successor in the next few years, but this is certainly not guaranteed. However a good positive public reaction should help so go ahead and vote!