The strangest concept cars ever created

Few sixties concepts were as glassy as this one; the Marzal featured 48.4 square feet of the stuff. Designed by Bertone and clearly leading to the Lamborghini Espada, the Marzal featured an abundance of hexagons in its design. Power came from half a Lamborghini V12; a 175bhp six-cylinder unit mounted over the rear axle.

Penned by Marcello Gandini, the Carabo - Italian for Beetle - was based on the mid-engined V8-powered Alfa Romeo Tipo 33. This was essentially an updated Lamborghini Miura, another Gandini design. The Lambo suffered front-end lift at speed so this car fixed that. It also introduced the world to beetle-wing doors, first put into production on the Countach, and yet another Gandini creation.

Taking the styling themes set down by the Carabo and Stratos Zero, the Boomerang showed how a wedge-shaped car could be packaged for real-world use. It led directly to cars such as the Lotus Esprit and DeLorean DMC-12. The 4.7-liter V8 drivetrain was borrowed from the Maserati Bora.

GM Sunraycer

Some concepts are non-runners but not this one; GM sent it on a 1,950-mile journey across Australia fed by nothing but sunshine. Weighing just under 400 pounds and fitted with 7,200 solar cells, the Sunraycer could seat just one so it wasn’t massively practical, but it was a technical tour de force with its lightweight construction, regenerative braking and an electric motor that was the size of a soda can. Its top speed was a very respectable 68 mph.

The smallest cars are often the most innovative, and so it was here with a concept first seen in 1991 then reimagined for 1993. While the first iteration came with electric propulsion only, a redesign two years later led to three powertrains being engineered: petrol, electric and petrol-electric hybrid. With a lightweight aluminium bodyshell to cut weight the E1 could have been the Audi A1’s nemesis. Had BMW not bought Rover and Mini in 1994, a car like this would almost certainly have surfaced for sale.

Souce: Msn.com