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Just surfing around sightseeing this morning and this beauty from 1954 caught my eye. Pontiac's Motorama star for 1954 was its first sports dream car, the Bonneville Special. Using a name that would make the production cars in 1957 and never let go, the 100-inch wheelbase and fiberglass Bonneville has a transparent plexiglass roof with opening panels over the seat to aid access...

Some days you just want to escape and see what you can see. If you ever get that wanderlust and want to see a lot of interesting vehicles, take a trip to conceptcarz.com. The one that caught my eye today is this 1938 Phantom Corsair...

Here's one that sort of satisfies the aircraft enthusiast in me. The 1932 Helicron Seems that back in the day, some in France believed that propeller power was the most efficient way to move a vehicle. Since everything old is new again, I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen someone try to revive this concept, perhaps with a ducted fan design, or maybe a really sporty concept with some kind of jet turbine drive...

That's the 1955 Lincoln-Mercury Futura concept car. But most of you are more familiar with it under a different name. The Futura was the brainchild of Lincoln Mercury's postwar chief stylist, Bill Schmidt.  Inspired by a scuba-diving encounter with a shark, Schmidt sketched a low, long, wide, and flat vision of the future with a predatory full width grille, ominously hooded headlights, and killer tail fins.  Built by Ghia in 1955, the $250,000 dream car was dubbed the Lincoln Futura. The futuristic Lincoln was driven to a show in Detroit.  On March 3rd, just before the NY Auto Show, with Benson Ford at the experimental steering wheel and Schmidt in the passenger seat, the Futura cruised from the United Nation's building through Central Park to the Tavern on the Green for a photo session.  The Futura went on The Ed Sullivan Show, which Lincoln sponsored, then to a guest shot on Dave Garroway's TV Show.   Like most concept vehicles, the Futura wasn't going to see production...

Sometimes the concepts in concept cars are extremely simple. Like light weight plus horsepower equals speed. Such is the case with the car unveiled by Weber Sportscars at the 2007 Monoco Top Marques show...

Time for another flight into the future, or at least what one designer thought the future held at the time. The 1948 Tasco prototype is a Derham-bodied prototype for a post-WWII American sports car and featured airplane inspired controls.  It is a one-off vehicle designed by Gordon Buehrig.  It is the first car in the world with a T-top roof.  Buehrig patented the idea and sued GM when they used it on the 1968 Corvette.  He received very little for his patent.  This unique car includes fiberglass steerable front fenders. The company name 'Tasco' is an abbreviation for 'The American Sportscar Company.'  This mostly-aluminum prototype was created to inspire a contract with the Beech Aircraft Company for production of an aviation-styled automobile...

For all you chrome lovers out there here's the 1956 Mercury XM Turnpike Cruiser concept car. Mercury called this car a "Preview of the Furture" in the brochure. The Cruiser featured a plastic butterfly top that popped up when the door was opened to facilitate passenger entery and exit...

I like concept cars. Most of the time it's because of the futuristic potential and excitement. Sometimes it's just because they are plain weird...

Maybe I like concept vehicles and envelope pushing ideas  because I grew up with Star Trek boldly going where nobody has gone before. Students at North Carolina State University have started a project to see whether it was possible to build a performance car out of wood. I suppose this is more of a "wood as a construction material" project as it is a practical idea, but it still will be neat to see the result...

Since I've been blogging for a bit now and actually have people who take the time to read my blatherings (shocking, but thank you!), some of them make it a point to send me curious items they run across. Such was the case this morning when an instant message popped up with a link to a story about the Rinspeed sQuba, an electric car that apparently can "fly" underwater and will be shown at the Geneva Auto Show March 6 - 16. Rinspeed boss Frank M...