Once
upon a time, concept cars invariably started life looking forwards, and not
always very realistically. In the 1950s, especially in America but in Europe
too, you couldn't get far away from the images of jet aeroplanes, rocketships,
the fantastic over-the-top worship of science fiction technology. In the fabulous
50s and the swinging 60s nobody wanted to hark back to an old fashioned past.
Old cars weren't sexy, space travel was. Nostalgia was still a thing of the
future.
High-tech crystal-ball gazing stayed fashionable on the concept circuit
well into the 1990s, and for some designers it's still the thing, even going
into the 21st century. But somewhere along the line, the motor industry
(or at least some of the industry's more adventurous designers) discovered
the past. Retro became chic, and since it did the industry has never stopped
looking backwards.
