What Is The Most Ridiculous Concept Car?

Pretty much all concept cars land somewhere on the ridiculousness spectrum, whether it’s dubious styling cues, overly fantastical speculative technologies, or, I dunno, a lack of cupholders. As it should be, of course, because concept machines are all about “The car of tomorrow, today!” Nobody cares about “The car of today, today!”

Some concept cars, however, are truly ridiculous. Vehicles so absurd, it’s as if the possibility of future production in some form, in part or in whole, isn’t even a consideration. Heck, some concepts make me wonder if the designer even cared whether people liked them or not, and maybe if I interviewed the designer I would get something like, “The idea behind this design is ‘I just found I’m getting fired at the end of the year, so screw this stupid car company, I made this thing dumb on purpose to sink them.’ Also, I was inspired by natural forms.”

I’m sure there are at least a few concept cars that have lodged themselves in your data bank as designs that belong somewhere between whimsical and ridonculous, and we’re Autopian-asking you to share them with us now. Here are some that have stayed with me:

This manned missile is also in the topshot. It’s the General Motors XP-21 Firebird, “GM’s Newest Experiment on Wheels” as of 1954 and “the first gas turbine automobile ever to be built and tested in the United States,” per GM’s promotional story of the car. I first encountered the XP-21 in an extremely worn-out book that I frequently checked out of my elementary school library circa 1974. The other stars of the Big Three’s mid-50s show-car output were featured as well, but the XP-21 captured my imagination the most, as silly as the idea of a single-seater jet car was even to a first grader. I particularly enjoy the tail-mounted pitot tube. You know, for airspeed, because taking MPH readings via the wheels just wouldn’t do.

Ah, the Lancia Stratos HF Zero, a classic. It’s as outlandish as it is beautiful, and twice as impractical. Looking at the profile view above, it’s difficult to discern exactly how one enters and exits the thing, or positions themselves inside of it – and that’s before you even consider how tiny it is! Here it is in 1970’s Milan traffic:

Look at those two fellows in there, under glass like a museum display. I gotta believe the only visibility is straight out the steeply raked windshield, with absolutely nothing to be seen more than a few degrees off dead-ahead due to A-pillars so massive they are not pillars at all but are simply the sides of the body. What a silly and wonderful car.

And now, consider the Citroën Karin, the French carmaker’s glimpse into the future as envisioned from the then-present of 1980. Surely no design has ever had more tumblehome than this pyramid-shaped, six-eyed three-seater. With a properly sized roof, I’m confident this concept would have been quite handsome and completely believable as a production car in the near future of, say, 1990. But as presented, capped by a roof that likely has the same area as a pizza box, the Karin achieves a laugh-out-loud level of WTF. I only wish Citroën had really gone for it and given the Karin an iPad-sized sunroof.

One more, the Nissan Pivo. If the Cinderella’s coachness of it all isn’t ridiculous enough for you, consider that the Pivo pivots, like so:

I could go on, but it’s your turn: What Is The Most Ridiculous Concept Car?