The Showboat Syndrome: an insight into Concept Cars

Skoda "VisionD" Concept

They are big and bold, sometimes outrageous, which fall anywhere between exciting and risible in terms of the effect they create. Some are masterpieces and some are the automotive equivalent to bad karaoke. They have solid backing to work to and the underpinnings are concrete, but the finished results are excruciatingly embarrassing to behold. But regardless of their success or failure what is the point of the creation of these exotic machines? The answer would be to reflect the ability of the company to transform from a niche manufacturer to one of the players in the premium car segment.

Chevrolet Camaro Black Edition

This provides a long term insight into the philosophy, reaffirming the commitment to create cars that stir the sentiments and emotions of the people. Unfortunately, it isn’t always the case. Sometimes it seems that the masterworks are produced for a completely different reason; the desire to show off. These are cars that will never become production realities, but which just show how clever the designers draftsmen and the prototype builders with various manufacturers really are. The mentioning of the show off stuff mostly goes on inside the car. This is where the designers can take off into flights of fancy because they know they probably won’t ever have to make it work. 

Regardless of their raison d’etre, show cars still fulfill a vital role in the world of automobiles; they provide a respite from the relative monotony of regular road cars. They give the visitor something to ogle at (and maybe dream about) for a minute or two and offer the manufacturers with more or less guaranteed media attention. This is the reason more than any other that the cars will continue to be fanciful and enrapture the audience at the auto shows around the world.

BMW VisionConnected Drive

But these concept cars sometimes also draw the flak of the media and other auto experts. These are some of the examples of what happened when the concept cars unveiled by these particular automobile giants didn’t go too well with the critics.