Auto shows have always been full of one-off dream cars nobody could buy. Counting down nine of the wildest — and the last has no metal body panels at all.
The car that invented the concept car. GM design chief Harley Earl built exactly one, gave it hidden headlamps and power windows, then drove it to work for years.
Seven fins, twin bubble canopies and a gas turbine engine. There was no steering wheel at all — the driver aimed it with one joystick between the seats.
The black cones on its nose housed radar meant to warn of obstacles ahead. Its bubble roof slid back electrically, and the doors opened at the push of a button.
Full-height gullwing doors made almost entirely of glass, opening onto silver seats. Its engine was a V12 cut in half: a straight-six mounted behind the cabin.
Marcello Gandini's wedge introduced scissor doors, the hinge Lamborghini still uses today. Its iridescent green paint was named after a ground beetle.
Just 84 cm tall, barely above waist height. It had no doors: you lifted the whole windscreen like a fighter canopy and climbed in over the nose.
Pininfarina wrapped a Le Mans race chassis in a flat slab with half-covered wheels. The entire canopy slid forward to let you in. One was built, and only one.
Engineers copied the boxfish, a blunt tropical fish that slips through water with almost no drag. The shape reached a drag coefficient of 0.19 and about 70 mpg.
No metal body panels at all. A seamless fabric skin stretched over a moving frame, so the headlights opened like eyelids and the car changed shape as it drove.
Every one of these was built, driven and shown to the public — then quietly parked in a museum. Not a single one was ever offered for sale.