Our Favorite Concept Cars of 2017

After a scant 55-year break (and some Chinese financing), Germany’s Borgward was miraculously resurrected in 2016 with the BX7 SUV. Who knew? A Beijing-built crossover is smart business, but any surviving Borgwardians would burst their adult diapers at the sight of the new Isabella, with its four sliding doors, two electric motors, and enough swoopy, delicate flourishes to shatter any ascetic’s self-esteem. Former Mini sculptor Anders Warming gets credit for the most satisfying surprise of 2017.

Swiping cues and proportions from its own old, old-school Civic, Honda proves that a supertiny box with huge wheels can be spectacular. Here it takes the form of the electric city car that urban planners insist we need. The Urban EV is so damn cute, we almost agree.

One concept from the past year made us want to grab a leather helmet, enter the 1936 Indianapolis 500, and rub balloon tires with Louis Meyer. There are only two problems with the Prototype 9. First, there’s no room for a riding mechanic. And second, behind that gloriously art-deco, retro-punk, reverse-waterfall grille is a Nissan Leaf’s electric motor. It ought to have an Offy.

An unashamed reflection of throwback sensibilities, the Quicksand is a thumping mix of insane sand dragster, demented Wrangler, and demonic chopped phaeton. There’s a 391-cubic-inch Hemi V-8 capped with velocity stacks up front, a six-speed manual transmission, gold Halibrand-style wheels, and a recovery rope packed inside a friggin’ drag-chute bag. Amid a sea of concepts trumpeting their makers’ virtuousness, this one indulges in the decadent glory of internal combustion. It will surely enter production in some mirror universe of inverted realities.

Wagons may not be commercially viable in the States, but they are the one true sleek alternative to a world overrun by blunt crossovers. The Proceed is Kia playing a long game that forecasts today’s market forces collapsing under a zeitgeist-wide longing for provocative vehicular sexuality.

Mazda, you get us. You are our passion and our reason, the sodium to our chloride; together, we are the table salt of desire. We lose ourselves in the sweep of this Vision. Transfixed by its hooded eyes, we drown in the depths of its paint. Its interior looks as if it were carved from a single limb, one struck and felled by a lightning bolt of inspiration off a golden tree of awesome. This is glory beyond English. C’est magnifique.

McLaren is embracing the hallucinatory power of gaming. The Ultimate Vision Gran Turismo is a purely theoretical concept like the tachyon. It exists only as a computerized representation. In this case, the digital realm is Sony Playstation’s Gran Turismo Sport. There’s no physical middle for the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 to fill and no real front wheels for the dual motors to spin. The active aerodynamics are just hyperactive lines of code. But all concept cars are fantasy, so why bother with real-world constraints? Given that McLaren’s Vision supposedly packs 1134 horsepower and a motorcycle-style driving position, maybe piloting one on PS4 is close enough to real life for anyone’s health.