Elegant Concept Cars on Display at Pebble Beach
Concept cars are non-release prototypes. These vehicles generally aren’t built to go into the line of production, and are instead intended to showcase and gauge customer reaction to radical new innovations and designs. If you attend a mechanic school, you may dream of one day working on improving the capability of these supercars. An example of an early concept car is the 1955 Lincoln Futura, which never went into consumer production. However, the car design was picked up and given life on the 1966 Batman television series, where it was driven by Adam West as Batman.
The concept car lawn at Pebble Beach California is a way to indulge car-lovers in their wildest dreams—super fast cars, breakthrough designs and ultimate luxury. Most of these cars, if sold, would ring in at well over $100,000 USD. However, as these cars are meant for show and not actual driving, some don’t even have a full engine under their hood! The closest one can get to driving some of these prototypes is through the real-life emulation video game Gran Turismo. In fact, the Aston Martin DP-100 Vision Gran Turismo showcased at Pebble Beach this summer, was formerly a visual-only concept car fashioned after the video game.
2014 Supercar Trends
Each year new designs reveal themselves at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, although throughout the decades the ultimate aim of a concept car has remained unchanged. These cars strive for two main goals: sex appeal and speed. If you have aspirations of becoming a mechanic, look into the changes occurring in this year’s car designs. Here are some of 2014’s trends and innovations in supercars:
- Concept cars ranged from 500-1200 horsepower.
- One of the fastest cars shown this year was the Hennessey Venom GT with a top speed of 270.49 mph and 1244 horsepower.
- Light coloured leather and wood accents were the trending materials for car interiors.
- Curved hoods were a mutual design quality of the fastest cars at Pebble Beach.
Concept Cars on the Market
While most concept cars do not end up on the production line, there are a few models from this year that have been confirmed for sale. One of these is the McLaren P1 GTR. With 986 horsepower, purchase of this car comes with driving simulation training at the McLaren Technology Center in order to adjust to the car’s insanely fast speeds.You can expect to see this car on the race tracks in the next few years.
Another car predicted to be a big seller is the classic Phantom Drophead Coupé by designer Rolls Royce. While speed is always marketable, Rolls Royce puts a new spin on romance in this open top luxury car, designed to simulate the experience of being on a yacht. Given their design ambitions, it’s no surprise that the stylish Rolls Royce is a favourite of Hollywood. In fact, you may recognize this car design from action films, such as the James Bond series.
Canada has only recently begun developing supercars such as those shown at the Concours d’Elegance. If you plan on attending an auto mechanic school in Canada and want see what the future brings for the country, check out the HTT Pléhore LC-750, designed and built in Québec.
What concept cars at Pebble Beach 2014 caught your eye?
