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Concept Cars: All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Show?
By Aidan Walsh06 October 2020

The star turns of the motor show, concept cars provoke, excite and inspire. But what happens to the special guests when the party is cancelled?

Has the last, and perhaps greatest, of Europe’s traditional motor shows finally fallen? While 2020’s Geneva exhibition fell victim to Covid-19, 2021’s show has already met its far more ignominious end due to lack of interest. While many of the questions arising from this sad, but perhaps inevitable, turn of events are easily answered, one is more tricky.

Namely, with the rapid and most-likely permanent waning of the motor show as we know it (at least outside of China), what becomes of the show stars if the curtain falls for good? With such a marked decline in their natural habitat, might concept cars as an, um, concept, wither too?

Though concepts have undoubtedly come a long way from the early days of General Motors’ Motorama events, the stomping ground of GM styling supremo Harley Earl – whose 1938 Buick Y-Job is oft-cited as origin of the show-car species, they remain most at home among the glitz of the globe’s most cavernous exhibition centres.

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Buick Y-Job: The godfather of concept cars

This is understandable of course. Since the majority are non-runners, road-testing and tyre-smoking demos are out of the question and, given the costs involved in creating a top-notch concept, manufacturers generally want to ensure maximum exposure – a podium at a dealer showroom, village fete or even the official museum won’t suffice.

That said, to suggest that the death knell for concepts is imminent would be pure hyperbole. Not all are conceived purely to court publicity – many have important roles to play as internal test beds, inspirational artefacts and statements of intent. BMW’s now-infamous GINA for example, which remained a closely-guarded secret for nearly seven years after its creation.

Furthermore, recent years have witnessed many moving out of show halls and onto the manicured lawns of concours events (such as Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance or Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza), the roaring grounds of the Goodwood Estate, or even directly into the living rooms of committed gamers via the hallowed Gran Turismo franchise. However, though such developments may provide sanctuary for concepts just as a zoo enclosure might for a beleaguered jungle cat, it would be naive to presume they won’t change the nature of the beast.

Think of recent masterpieces like Fiat’s Centodieci, Citroen’s Ami One or even Hyundai’s 45. They’d likely be as appealing to Pebble Beach plutocrats or Goodwood gear-heads as tofu to a tiger, captive or otherwise. These are very much specialist events, aimed at very specific audiences.

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A modern masterpiece? The Bugatti Centodieci

Likewise, it’s no coincidence most video game concepts wouldn’t look out of place on the back of a teenager’s maths book and the growing number produced for tech events, such as the trade-only Consumer Electronics Show (CES) tend to owe more to smartphones and sci-fi than anything automotive.

This design diaspora enables manufacturers to reach out to new audiences and designers to stretch their talents in new directions. However, when set against the continued decline of old-school auto extravaganzas such as those in Frankfurt, Paris or Detroit it’s difficult not to see a car industry losing the confidence, will and pulling-power to stage its own big events. Instead, it resorts to gatecrashing the cooler, more happening parties of a new in-crowd.

If concept cars can’t be the stars of their own stage, they’ll have to adapt to other people’s. Ever-more outlandish flights of fancy for the virtual world, ever-more exclusive garage ornaments for the concours and ever-more silicon-based mobility capsules for the tech gatherings.

Automotive history is littered with the kind of conceptual gems which, outside a catch-all auto show, wouldn’t have an obvious home. Would Renault have sent its 1991 proto-Scenic to Villa d’Este? Might Rover have unveiled 1997’s Mini Spiritual at Pebble Beach? Could Audi’s Al2 of the same year have thrilled gamers the way its e-tron Vision Gran Turismo is intended to? Would Fiat’s ingenious Ecobasic have received a glowing reception at Goodwood, or Volkswagen’s L1 at Mobile World Congress?

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The BMW GINA was cloaked in secrecy

Sure, some of these glorious oddballs may have glimpsed the spotlight, even without the aid of a major show, but how many might have remained doodles on a designer’s notepad, discarded in favour of safer, more formulaic offerings optimised to please someone else’s crowd?

Which is not to say ‘non-car’ cars can’t be thought-provoking, Mercedes-Benz’ recent Vision AVTR and (Virgil Abloh-designed) Project Geländewagen are certainly that, but does either display the thoroughness of design, considered thinking, or indeed ‘real world’ relevance which distinguish truly great concepts from mere flash-in-pan crowd pullers? Have any of the virtual visions managed to really transcend the boundaries of their game? How many of the countless tech-fest auto-lounges of recent years represent anything more than bandwagon-jumping on the part of their creators?

Of course, whatever your conceptual flavour, there’s always the good-old web to fall back on, with several of 2020’s would-be Geneva stars still managing to shine in cyberspace, most notably Hyundai’s scintillating Prophecy and Polestar’s beguiling Precept.

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The Polestar Precept

Such developments, combined with the aforementioned vogue for the virtual, mean it doesn’t take much imagination to foresee a time when the fruit of designers’ labours might be explored via say, a VR headset, offering an opportunity for manufacturers to connect with the public without sinking vast sums into glittering stands and legions of well-versed, beautiful people to run them.

Still, if there’s one thing this strangest and most unsettling of years has impressed upon all of us, it is that getting up off the sofa and away from screens can actually be quite nice, if only from time-to-time. And while many wouldn’t be sorry to consign the overpriced food, heaving crowds and aching feet of the traditional show circuit to history’s dustbin, it’s worth considering just what else might be at stake should big-auto continue neglect its home turf.

 

Cadillac has been identified within GM as the Electric Division going forward. An ICE V16 is quaint, but doesn't fit todays strategy going forward.

 

It was a means of allowing Cadillac to show the world ‘possibilities’.
They looked at numerous ways to get it into production, but in the end it was just too expensive.
Now, an ICE 16 doesn’t fit into the grand scheme of things.
That car was done in the Advanced Studios. I was the Dir. of Design for Cadillac at the time.
Cadillac mgt wanted to know if we could use the 16 to influence the 2nd gen CTS.
Slight difference in proportions.

 

65+ years later, these cars remain beyond cool. Pure unbridled creativity.
Wish I could buy them.

 

1st impression is I like what I see so far.

 

No longer have the 488, nor the Stelvio.
And I’m keeping my kidneys until further notice.

 

Returned to my 'roots'.
2020 CT6 Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

No, I had the Stelvio for almost 2 yrs and the lease was just about up.
While I loved the Alfa, I just couldn't deal with getting another CUV/SUV. Where I live it's like a CUV/SUV breeding grounds. They're everywhere.
So, enter the conventional Cee-Dan. 4 drs and all.
First 4 dr I've had in a long, long time.