Seven concept cars that predicted the future

Built in 1939, the Atom prophesied the tech and styling that would become de rigueur a decade later. It had a tubular spaceframe chassis, ultra-light aluminium body and independent suspension. Most incredible of all is the electro-magnetic semi-automatic gearbox, in effect the first ever paddle-shift. 

In the “anything is possible” post-war years, Alfa obsessed over aerodynamic efficiency. And in 1953, after epic expense and much chewing of pencils, it unveiled the BAT 5. With gaping air intakes, faired-in wheels and curling fins, it achieved amazing results, a car as slippery at speed as it was astonishing at rest. 

The Deora was a home-grown project for two Detroit brothers, who chopped a donor pickup to bits, hinging the windscreen-come-door with a station wagon tailgate and moving the engine amidships. Dodge loved it so much that it leased it for their own publicity, overlooking the Ford parts that made it possible. 

Complete with fighter-plane canopy and dummy afterburners under those massive tail fins, the Cadillac Cyclone was the pinnacle of automotive fantasy in the new-fangled jet age. It also featured a radar system for crash avoidance within those twin black nose cones. 

GM didn’t overthink the car element of its aviation-inspired gas turbine project. The XP-21 was essentially a jet fighter with wheels instead of bombs. Dubbed Firebird 1, this experimental engine study could hit 100mph in first gear. Sadly, the torque was so huge that second gear was unthinkable, and the XP-21 was mothballed when the head of GM’s research lab almost died trying to make it turn a corner. 

A dozen Futurliners were built for GM’s Parade of Progress, a giant mobile marketing mission in the days before telly. They proclaimed a high-tech future, all glistening chrome and otherworldly immensity, with a towering central driving position. These were vast barges too, with twin 45-gallon fuel tanks and 24 gears. 

Being a car designer in the atomic era meant but one thing. Go nuclear, or go home. So when Ford’s Nucleon appeared, no one raised an eyebrow. After all, a car with a nuclear reactor over the rear axle was the future, right? You just line the bulkhead with six inches of lead and pray the brake lights never fail.