Since the introduction of the 1938 Buick Y-Job, a car which is today considered the first official concept car, these experimental vehicles have served various purposes. Sometimes, concept cars were made to highlight the new design language of a company, other times, they were means of testing new technologies, but often, they were both. Over the decades, there have been many unusual, quirky and downright crazy concepts which explored ideas and ways the companies or independent designers were thinking about cars. That’s why we put a spotlight on these one-off greats to find the craziest, most intriguing concept cars in history.
1. 1958 Ford Nucleon
In the fifties, America was walking on a tightrope between endless optimism and anti-communist paranoia. In the 50s folklore, atomic power was everything, and that’s how the Nucleon concept car emerged from Ford Motor Company’s development branch. When it came to design, the Nucleon was an amazing car which brought simplistic 60s lines to Ford’s vision of the future. To be fair, Nucleus wasn’t a full-sized concept car, nor it was actually powered by a real nuclear reactor, but the sheer idea of atomic cars is what brought this odd fellow to the list. As pointless as it was, the Nucleon still managed to leave a mark in the industry by introducing electronic torque converters.
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