A Tale of Two Concept Cars Two Years Later

With Citroen about to show its next stunning concept, the Numero 9, to the public next week at the Beijing Auto Show it seems appropriate to revisit a similar Citroen concept from two years ago. The Numero 9 is essentially a shooting-brake version of the equally stunning Metropolis Concept. Back when the Metropolis first came out I called it a better concept than the BMW Gran Coupe concept mainly because the Metropolis was a more radical concept than the BMW. Nearly two years later the Gran Coupe Concept has evolved into the 6 series Gran Coupe losing very little of its styling in the process. My fears about the Gran Coupe concept being watered down into production turned out to be largely unfounded. As expected, the Metropolis concept has yet to materialize into a production version. However there is hope that the Numero 9 will eventually join the DS lineup as its flagship. Two years ago I was praising Citroen for creating a concept for the sake of creating a concept and nothing else, yet now I am left wishing for Citroen to finally give me a production version of one of their awesome concepts.

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.