3 Most Interesting Concept Cars Of 1995

Concept cars are often called the cars of the future, but a year or two after the premiere, the public tends to forget about them. The future in general often goes according to a completely different scenario than the designers dreamed of, and it is not always beneficial for them to remember the past. But we still try to go back two decades. So, the three most striking concept cars of 1995 taken from ConceptCarsDesign.

Mercedes-Benz VRC

The theme of body transformation was very popular at the end of the twentieth century - Mercedes-Benz did not leave it without attention. Together with the Italian studio Coggiola, he developed a car with the designation VRC (Vario Research Car), capable of transforming from an ordinary sedan, close in size to the C-class (though two-door), into a station wagon, pickup truck and convertible.

The body type changed, as they say, easily and naturally, by mounting the rear “cap” of one configuration or another, which was fastened with electromagnetic and mechanical locks. As we now know, the four-in-one concept did not catch on in mass production, but many of the innovations used on the Mercedes VRC later found their way onto the assembly line.

Among those - steering "by wire" (hello, Infiniti Q50!), A navigation system with a color liquid crystal display and, most importantly, front-wheel drive, then still innovative for Mercedes. As for styling, the VRC is not a revelation in this regard, but the continuation of some lines can be seen in production models.

BNW Z18

Bavarian competitors also rolled out onto the stage a small two-door sports car, but with a different accent. The BMW Z18 roadster is remarkable not so much for its design, the most striking element of which are wheels with separate wings in the manner of a motorcycle (the time for Bangle's risky experiments has not yet come), but for its technical concept.

In fact, this car anticipated the appearance of all the current "X": the combination of high ground clearance, "toothy" tires and all-wheel drive until then was completely atypical for BMW.

Moreover, the toy-looking machine was equipped with the most adult power unit - a 4.4-liter "eight" with a capacity of 355 hp. with. Another feature of the concept was the modular body structure: it was assumed that by changing the removable plastic panels, it would be possible to turn an open two-seater into a 2 + 2 coupe or a pickup truck. Many years later, this idea was transformed into the production of, in fact, one crossover with two body styles - BMW X5 and X6.

Renault Initiale

Today, Lawrence Van den Acker, as you know, settled in Renault, and twenty years ago Patrick Le Quément reigned supreme there, professing very original and undisputed ideas. Their bright declaration was the extravagant Initiale concept, which even today does not look old-fashioned, unlike most of the concepts of those years. Age is only given out by large windows: now designers are not shy about sacrificing visibility for the sake of greater impressiveness, but then it was not accepted, even on executive cars.

Le Quément sought to create something fundamentally different from all Mercedes and Rolls-Royces, and his designers undoubtedly achieved this goal. The technical filling was also very unusual - a ten-cylinder 3.5-liter engine, as in the then Formula 1, and all-wheel drive. It became simpler when the serial Renault Vel Satis “grew up” from Initiale, which, however, did not have much success even in its homeland. But this car had a certain influence on the development of corporate identity, it was not for nothing that his name was assigned to a new concept car in 2013.