10 Concept Cars From The ‘00s We Wish Had Made Production

There’s an argument to be had that the ‘00s were the peak of the car. Development of chassis technology began to hit its natural limit, safety regs were doing enough to keep us plenty safe but not adding too much bulk to a car and assistance systems were still cool marketing buzzwords rather than that annoying beep you wish you could just shut up once and for all.

Concept cars of the time were pretty wild too, and there are so many that never made production we still sorely wish had. We’ve whittled it down to our 10 favourites.

Lamborghini Estoque

Of all the cars on this list, it’s the Lamborghini Estoque that was most likely to make it to production. Which makes us even sadder that it never did.

Revealed in 2008, this was Lamborghini doing the sensible thing of building a four-door, four-seat saloon. Only for those rear seats to be buckets, and the engine to be the 5.2-litre V10 lifted from the Gallardo.

It looked properly mad too – like a stretched Reventon or an F-14 Tomcat with a semblance of practicality. Sadly, the recession hit and plans to make a road-going version were quietly canned.

Chrysler ME Four-Twelve

In contrast to the Estoque – a practical car coming from a manufacturer of bonkers supercars – the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve effectively flipped that on its head.

It came in 2004 and stole the Detroit Auto Show that year. Here was a mid-engined, quad-turbo V12-powered supercar from a brand building the Voyager.

Under the dramatic skin was a part-carbon fibre, part-aluminium monocoque tub and that AMG-sourced V12 was good for 850bhp, apparently. At a time the 650bhp Ferrari Enzo was the king of the road.

Chrysler did seriously contemplate putting it into production and even let a few journalists have a go in the prototype. Sadly, with DaimlerChrysler bleeding cash at the time, it was deemed not to be cost-effective.

Mazda Cosmo 21

Ah, you thought that of all of the Mazdas, we’d pick the Furai here, right? As much as we love and miss that car, you would be wrong on this occasion. Only because of an extremely obscure concept from the very early ‘00s which seemed more realistic and obtainable.

This is the Mazda Cosmo 21, effectively an NB MX-5 styled to look like the original Mazda Cosmo. Nothing more to it than that, right?

Well, yes there was, actually. Under its bonnet sat the Renesis rotary engine from the then-recently new RX-8, good for 247bhp in the Cosmo 21. Oh, how we wish a Wankel MX-5 had made it to production…

Cadillac Cien

In a similar vein to the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve we mentioned earlier, the Cadillac Cien was an unexpected American hypercar that we would love to have seen on the roads. Only it came even earlier than the Chrysler.

As a way to celebrate its 100th year, the Cien was a pretty special – if unexpected – present to itself. It was to be the ultimate American hypercar, only with a chassis made by UK specialists Prodrive and a V12 engine from err, UK specialists Cosworth.

Like the later ME Four-Twelve, there was serious talk of the Cadillac Cien entering production but it too was deemed too expensive to build and then turn a profit on. Imagine a world without accountants…

Prodrive P2

What do you get when you let a World Rally Championship-winning team have a crack at building a road car from bits lying around? The utterly mad Prodrive P2, that’s what.

Presumably to relax a bit after winning three WRC constructors’ and drivers’ titles with Subaru respectively, Banbury-based Prodrive decided to show the world what it could do for the road.

Its chassis was modified from the Subaru R1 kei car, with an engine nabbed from the WRX STI and tuned to 345bhp. Anti-lag was fitted to that, while power was sent through an all-wheel drive system with Active Torque Dynamics.

Production was never likely, but it did at least bring us a bit of Clarkson face-melting Top Gear nostalgia to watch all these years later.

Peugeot 907

Walking into a Peugeot showroom in 2004 was a pretty depressing affair. At best, you could get yourself 206 GTI but beyond that your options were limited to dreary, horrible, ugly profit margin-squeezing boxes of misery (tell us what you really think, Ryan).

That could’ve been oh-so different had the 907 gone into production. Yes, it looked very weird but under that absolutely gigantic phallic bonnet sat a 500bhp 6.0-litre V12, created by stitching together two V6s from the 607.

Although the one prototype worked, it was never intended to enter production, instead serving as a showcase of what Peugeot could build if it really wanted to. Which is why it then made the 207, we guess…

Toyota RSC

Here’s one you may be familiar with selling on Gran Turismo 4 repeatedly after winning the Capri Rally for easy credits. In its own right though, the Toyota RSC was a very cool thing.

Based on the RAV4, the RSC was designed to “connect emotionally with young buyers”, those young buyers presumably being fans of WRC cars and silly SUVs. This was a mish-mash of the two, and it looked pretty cool. We’d have no problem with crossovers if they all turned out like this.

VW W12 Nardo

Although the line of VW W12 concepts started in the ‘90s, it wasn’t until 2001 that the last – and well, the best – came along.

This was the Nardo, the one with 591bhp. Named after Italy’s Nardo Ring – a place you take cars if you want to go really, really fast – this W12 was capable of a top speed of 221.8mph. That matched the then-fastest car in the world, the McLaren F1.

Of course, VW would shelve the W12 project soon after, with the usual cost-effectiveness coming into play. Surely though, the development of the VW Group-developed Bugatti Veyron was a large factor, and look how that turned out.

BMW M1 Homage

BMW M has built precisely two cars of its own accord in the many years of its existence. The first, the utterly wonderful M1, to date the only BMW mid-engined supercar. The second? The XM. Yeah, we’ll gloss over that.

However, we do know what a ‘new’ M1 could’ve looked like in 2008 with the M1 Homage concept. If you’re looking and thinking “Well, that’s quite a lot like an i8” you’d be right as it would go on to eventually serve as inspiration for that car.

Yet, that ultimately did without those gorgeous louvres, the BMW roundels on either side of the rear and (at least in theory) the S58 V10 hiding under the skin. Some car that could’ve been.

Shelby GR-1

The world has never been graced with a true Shelby Cobra successor (if you don’t count the Dodge Viper). In a world with everything going electric and away from roaring great engines, we’ll probably never have one, too.

Which makes us a little sadder that someone decided the Shelby GR-1 didn’t need to enter production. Designed to look like a modern interpretation of the Cobra-based Shelby Daytona Coupe, used bits of Ford GT and had a 6.4-litre V10 in the front. Oh lord.

It sort-of almost did enter production at the hands of Superperformance, albeit with plans to use a V8 instead. Yet for US political reasons our European minds can’t comprehend, it never did.