Here are 16 of Renault's wildest-ever concepts

We’ll start with this 1990 concept shown off at the Paris show, offering a 2.0-litre turbo engine, 210bhp, 0-62mph in six seconds and, as you can see, no roof.

The Roadster Laguna won the concept car design award the following year, and preceded the 1996 Renault Spider. Also, if you can figure out what the person in the picture is pointing to – or indeed what both are wearing on their faces – please do get in touch.

First unveiled in pictorial form in 1992, and then as a real thing at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show, the Racoon featured a twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 engine, a pivoting glass canopy, three-seats laid out in a triangular configuration and HYDROJETS. Yep, it was amphibious, allegedly capable of reaching five knots in water, and therefore infinitely better than the medium-sized mammal it shares its name with.

Not somewhere you can pick up a new pair of trimmers or the latest fun family board game, but a 750kg concept with a Twingo-sourced 1.2-litre engine and doors that slid into the rear wings. The 1994 concept was said to exude the purpose of a fighter plane, while Renault told us “its unashamedly minimalist shape borders on the brutal".

Just give us a pencil and tell us the order number, please.

Not Renault’s long-burning desire to launch a rap career, a la 50 Cent, but a 1996 two-seat concept car said to give a hat tip to both the past and the future. Power came from a 60bhp, 1.2-litre engine, it was built using carbon fibre and aluminium, and featured a ‘moustache’ front grille.

1998, and Renault showed the world a roadster - capable of heading off-road - with three-seats. The French answer to McLaren’s F1? With a 135bhp 2.0-litre engine, hardly, but with beetle-wing doors, an adaptive spring system able to change the ride height and a stripped out interior, it was just as batty.

In 2001, Renault previewed a suggestion for a luxury four-seater coupe with a V8, gullwing doors, no central pillar and an aircraft wing-shaped dashboard. Brilliant. What we got instead in 2001 as a production car was the, um, Vel Satis.

The Wind, as you know, had a short life as a two-seat production convertible. But in 2004, this was the concept: a three-seater, low-slung roadster with a panoramic windscreen, and a 2.0-litre, 136bhp engine. Looked great, actually.

At its home motor show in 2006, Renault displayed one of its more experimental designs: a four-seater cabriolet with motorised gullwing doors. How, you might legitimately cry, does a cabrio with gullwing doors work, then? The hinges are mounted on the bonnet and just behind the headrests, leaving the middle wide open.

Underneath sat a 420bhp, 3.5-litre V6, capable of 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds, while elsewhere there was lots of leather, DVD screens, and a carbon body.

The Altica was a 2006 concept estate with a diesel engine, so it was supposed to be sensible. But it featured scissor doors, so clearly wasn't that sensible.

This concept doesn’t fit the crazy brief quite as well, but there’s no way we couldn’t include one of Renault’s prettiest creations. This Kevlar-bodied, 150bhp all-electric supercar was a design boon, ushering in the brand’s new language that would debut on the Twingo. Just gorgeous.

Need we say any more about this 400bhp, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive race car? That it’s made from carbon, features adjustable suspension, a mighty rear wing and gorgeous looks?

Oh, OK then. We’ll say some more. In fact, click this link to read about one of the company’s finest-ever builds.

A Twizy, fitted with racing wheels, a front splitter, side pods, a rear wing and a diffuser with an F1-style rain light. The Twizy RS F1 weighed just 564kg, pumped out 97bhp in total, and was one of the most excellent things we’ve seen yet.

We’ve driven it, too – see what we made of the Twizy F1 by clicking here.

All you need to know is that the Twin’Run featured a mid-mounted, 320bhp, V6-engine lifted from the Megane Trophy, a tubular chassis lifted straight from motorsport and noise. Never will you look at a humble Twingo in the same way.

Click here for our drive of the Twin’Run.

A super-frugal, glass-fibre efficiency machine, complete with air suspension, and a 1987 fuel consumption record of 3l/100km. Looked… interesting, too.

Upwards-opening doors are a prominent feature on Renault’s concept cars – witness the 2008 Megane Coupe concept with dragonfly ones. Here, we have the excellently-named Gabbiano, complete with – as per Italdesign’s words – ‘four real seats’ and one ‘seagull’ door that allows ‘contemporary entrance for front and back seats’.

Yep, real seats, with contemporary access, not, as some people require, medieval access.

This year's effort, with a massive one-piece canopy and 350bhp electric drivetrain. You can read all about it here.