For a long time now folks have been astounded by what amazing cars can be discovered in motor shows around the world. The vehicles that cause people to stop and take a second glance are not often the cars they will end up driving, rather they are cars that the car builders have designed to wow the buyers, test reaction and feature future technology, and of course try and get their brand just slightly more memorable then the next, these vehicles are called concept cars.

Concept cars began life during the late 1930s when Harley Earl, a General Motors designer, penned a car not for building, but only to display how a car could be sometime in the future, this car was called the Buick Y Job.

Harley Earl continued to design and promote these vehicles throughout his long career with the concept car idea really catching hold in the 1950s. Clearly the concept cars that Earl and others designed were not designed to be put into production, they were simply an exercise in what might be achievable in a production car at some point in the future.

Given the freedom of not needing to be concerned with safety aspects, fuel consumption , weight, practicality and cost of production, the concept car stylist can allow his imagination to run wild, and that is the reason we regularly see examples of concept cars that appear like they suit a different era entirely and obviously will not see the light of day as a production car.

Obviously with little barriers to what they can conceive, concept car designers rarely hold back and the designs can often consist of elements and functions that are not normally part of car production, including materials such as paper and even things like gold and silver.

Concept cars often have layouts that move away from traditional vehicle designs, gullwing doors, strange passenger layouts, odd shapes and lots of other styling elements which are not to be found in regular production vehicles.

Clearly, concept cars are pretty much a creative take on what could be possible in car styling, and many concept cars attempt to smudge the lines between what might be expected in a typical vehicle we buy in the showrooms and concept cars with impossibly unrealistic styling or functionality.

While the vast majority of concept cars never get close to production, there are of course the odd few efforts that give something to what we see on our roads, and its the thrill of spotting something amazing, that in a different era could be realistic, that keeps both concept car designers, and the buying public, both absolutely hooked on concept cars.