All Things Wheeled: Coolest Car Concepts that Should have Made It to Production

You have probably heard of cars like the Jaguar C-X75 or the Maserati Birdcage, which were both going to go into production, but didn't make it. I'm here to tell you about some concepts you don't often heard about, though. So here we go!

1. Porsche 918 RSR

This is one of the coolest concept cars ever, in my opinion. As you may know, 'RSR' is Porsche's racing car designation. It translates literally to 'racing sport racing car', but no matter how redundant the name, it's still way cool. The 918 RSR concept was supposed to be a Le Mans racing version of the 918 Spyder, but it never made it. No one really knows why.

2. Nissan IDX Nismo

The IDX was supposed to be the spiritual successor to the Datsun 510, but it never got anywhere due the high production costs.

3. Citroen GT

The Citroen GT concept was originally planned to be a virtual-only car, for the Gran Turismo video games, but when people started clamoring for it to go into production, they finally gave in, and said they would build 8 units. However, they never did, and to this day it still exists only in Gran Turismo.

4. Ford Shelby GR1

The Ford Shelby GR1 concept was another car not originally planned for production, but enough people wanted it that they decided to put it into production. But the project never saw the light of day, at least not from Ford. As a side note, though, Shelby recently announced plans to put Ford-powered replicas of the GR1 concept into production. So you could potentially still get one sometime soon.

5. Lamborghini Miura

The original Lamborghini Miura is an automotive icon, and, in 2006, Lamborghini tried to recreate it. (Honestly, I think they did a superb job of it, too). But I don't even think they ever planned to put it into production, so it still doesn't exist. Really, really too bad.

6. Koenigsegg Quant

Koenigsegg never had plans to build the Quant, but all the same, it's awesome. It had two electric motors generating 512hp and 527 lb-ft of torque. The sprint from 0-60mph would have taken 5.2 seconds, while top speed would be limited to 170mph. Impressive specs, but I guess not impressive enough for a Koenigsegg. After all, for a class-leading hypercar manufacturer, 0-60 in 5.2 seconds is pathetic.

7. NanoFlowcell Quant F

NanoFlowcell was a startup electric car company with really cool tech, namely, all the proposed models ran using salt water. This enabled a long range, excellent battery life, and really, really cheap fuel costs. Even cheaper than just charging a car at home. But the company never got off the ground. The Quant F was one of 4 proposed models, and it would have had 1,075hp and 2,139 lb-ft of torque (an astronomical figure, in case you didn't know), 0-60 in 2.4 seconds, and a top speed of 186mph. It would have been quite the car. That being said, take my words about NanoFlowecell being dead with a proverbial grain of salt, because their website at least is still active, and, after all, prototypes were made of all models, so there is still a chance, I guess, given enough funding.

8. Lotec Sirius

Ah, now we're getting to more obscure cars! This is the Lotec Sirius, a concept car from 2003 that was definitely supposed to go into production, but didn't. It was an incredible car, though. 1,200hp, a top speed of 248mph, and a 0-60 time of 3.8 seconds make it comparable even to hypercars of the 2010s. Very impressive.

9. Zender Vision 3

Hans-Albert Zender was an incredible guy, who made incredible car concepts, but unfortunately, none of his awesome concepts made it to production. The Vision 3 is just one of many concepts. It featured a Mercedes engine capable of producing 304hp, enabling the car to launch from 0-60 in just 6.4 seconds, a respectable figure in its day.

10. Toroidion 1MW

And now for the most insane of them all: Introducing the Toroidion 1MW hypercar! It was a concept car released in 2015, and it had some pretty unbelievable claims about its performance. It had 1,341hp, which is exactly one megawatt of power, thus its name, 1MW, a top speed of 249mph, a 0-60 time of under 2 seconds, and, get this; 0-249mph (0-400kph) in just 11 seconds! Just how crazy is that?! But we still aren't to the craziest claim yet; the torque. Thanks to the fact that it is electrically powered, the torque figure is just pure insanity: 17,701 pound-feet (24,000nm) of torque all told! To put that into perspective, that's how much torque 15 Bugatti Chirons, 35 Lamborghini Aventador SVJs, or 101 Lotus Exiges would make! That is just crazy.