12 Most Unusual Concept Cars of the 1980s!

[Music] 1980 Briggs and Stratton hybrid we're used to concept cars coming from major automakers but in 1980 Small Engine manufacturer Briggs and Stratton introduced this last gasp from the malaise era a six wheeel hatchback with a BNS 18 horsepower air cooled twin cylinder combined with an 8 horsepower electric motor which could power the car independently or in tandem the extra axle supported the weight of the 10 car batteries that lived under the trunk floor like today's phevs the batteries were charged by breaking running the engine or plugging in acceleration was Pokey but the car could top 60 M hour eventually and a Frugal driver could get 85 m per gallon rggs and Stratton still owns the car and it was featured on J Leno's Garage 1981 Ford Probe 3 before the questionable probe name was used on a production car it adorned a series of Concepts at a time when most Ford cars were still boxy boxes the probe 3 gave the world a preview of The Arrow styling that would come to Define Ford design in the late 1980s the probe 3 was really a preview of the European market 1982 Sierra a car that would eventually come to the states in hot rod form as the Merkur xr41 but it also showed cues that would be used on the Revolutionary 1986 Taurus not to mention the louvered tail lights that would appear on the 1988 Ford Mustang GT 1984 Ford Maya back in the 19 1980s Ford was seriously considering a mid-engine targetp two- seat sports car for the American market and the fully functional Maya concept shows us what it would have looked like power for the production car was to be a 250 horsepower 3 l 24 valve V6 co-developed with Yamaha though the concept reportedly had a less powerful placeholder engine styling was done by geeto jaro and the design was criticized for looking too much like his Lotus Etna concept we think it's a pretty good standin for the BMW M1 Ford built a couple of follow-on Concepts But ultimately the project was halted mostly the engine was used in the Ford Taurus ssho and Ford would of course eventually produce another mid-engine superar and another one after that 1986 Chevrolet Corvette Indie we all know that Chevrolet built numerous mid-engine Corvette prototypes before finally putting one into production of all the mid-engine dream Corvettes the 1986 Corvette is arguably the most intriguing with its 600 plus horsepower twin turbo 2. 65 L V8 Kevlar and carbon fiber body active suspension four-wheel drive and four-wheel steer by wire the Indie evolved into the 1990 cv3 which looked like a production ready car though it actually wasn't alas we'd have to wait nearly a quarter of a century before the miden engine Corvette became a reality 1986 6 Pontiac Transport the Chrysler Minivans were the hot ticket in the mid1 1980s and competing automakers were scrambling to bring their own garageable Vans to market Pontiac showed a preview of its family hauler with the Trans Sport concept which featured a composite body Gullwing rear doors a glass roof and a built-in Nintendo Entertainment System power came from an experimental 2. 9 L turbocharged V6 and the two-tone paint and grooved side cladding echoed The Styling of contemporary Pontiacs sadly when the production version appeared in 1990 one of GM's hapless dustbuster Vans it wasn't nearly as cool or exciting 1987 Chrysler and Lamborghini Pino chuffed with its 1987 purchase of Lamborghini Chrysler repurposed a Kevin verduin design called the Navajo and applied it to a stretched Lamborghini jalpa platform which it called the Pino not to be confused with the Ferrari Pino a Mid Engine Drve sedan with four scissor style doors the idea being to show the possibilities of a Lamborghini sedan an idea Porsche would bring to fruition two decades later there never was a four-door Lambo at least not under Chrysler ownership but the styling of the Pino would have a heavy influence on Chrysler's most daring and successful designs the cars we know as the Dodge Intrepid Chrysler Concord and Eagle Vision 1987 Lincoln vigal Alfredo vigal was a former pininfarina design designer whose company eventually wound up under Ford ownership and the name was applied to this concept for a high-end Lincoln Roadster the vigal was designed as a competitor to Cadillac alante which went into production for the 1987 model year presumably it signaled Ford's intention to pounce in case the elante succeeded but of course the elante didn't succeed and in fact was a money loser that ended up as one of general motor biggest failures of the 1980s no surprise then that the vigal never made it into production today the vial name is used on high trim Ford cars in Europe 1987 Oldsmobile Aerotech the Oldsmobile Aerotech was designed as a showcase for olds Mobile's then new Quad 4 engine a 2.

3 l 4cylinder that featured dual overhead cams and 16 valves old hat today but heady stuff in the mid 80s especially for Detroit which had been struggling for years to build a halfway decent four banger designed by the legendary Ed welburn the Aerotech was based on an indie car chassis and was effectively a rolling aerodynamics lab turbocharging brought the quad four up to 900 horsepower quite a bit more than the 151 horsepower it made in stock form and AJ fo took the car up to 218 mph a second version of the Aerotech with a 1,000 horsepower Quad 4 hit 275 mph the Aerotech produced reams of positive publicity for the Quad 4 and Oldsmobile later built a third car in the early 90s to promote the upcoming Aurora's 4 L V8 1988 Cadillac voyage and solitire the Cadillac Voyage was a full-size Aero friendly all-wheel drive Cadillac concept powered by a 275 horsepower version of the just introduced 4. 5 L fe8 the shape should look familiar as it would be used for the 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood though the concept Bears a much stronger resemblance to the closely related 1991 Chevrolet Caprice for 19 89 Cadillac followed up with the solitire a two-door version with a 430 horsepower 6.