The cars that adorn the dais’ of the major auto shows, from Tokyo to Milan are intended to sir our emotions, grow equity with their creator brands, and typically are never intended for production. Oh sure, the occasional show car makes to the dealer floor, but those that do are few and far between. I always like to gauge the likelihood of a show car reaching production by whether they have what appear to be effective wipers and things like steering wheels. 

One that really fooled me was the Dodge Viper, that show car had an outrageous and impractical windscreen that ended on each side in these crazy scooped side-view mirrors. I don’t think any consumer looking at that beast would have considered it a candidate for series production, but thankfully for the automotive world, somebody inside Chrysler did. Of course, not so many dream cars have been so fortunate.

Considering the decades of show cars – from all the way back in the Motorama days to the recent Detroit autogasm – are there any major show cars that you think should have become destined for production, but instead, owing to the fates, became little more than a historical footnote?

Image source: Flipacars