10 Concept Cars From The ‘80s We Wish Made Production

The 1980s will go down in history as a decade of extravagant haircuts, excellent pop music and consumption becoming more conspicuous than ever. It’s no surprise, then, that a decade where subtlety and nuance went out of the window produced some of the most memorable concept cars ever.

As we’ve already done for the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, we’ve rounded up 10 of the decade’s finest motor show attention grabbers that we wish could have escaped into the real world.

Peugeot Oxia

The 1980s were very kind to Peugeot, with the company dominating Group B rallying with the 205 T16 and producing some of the best-driving attainable cars on the road. What probably wouldn’t have been attainable if it made production was the Oxia, a mid-engined supercar concept unveiled in 1988.

For its day, it was an utter tech-fest: an aluminium monocoque chassis was clothed in lightweight composite bodywork, while power – some 680bhp of it – came from a twin-turbo version of the PRV V6. It had four-wheel drive, and four-wheel steering too. The Oxia was fully functional, and clocked a massive 217mph at the Nardo test track in Italy. That’d be impressive now in something from an established supercar maker, never mind a near 40-year-old Peugeot.

Ferrari Pinin

It took until the Purosangue SUV to get a production Ferrari with more than two doors, and it’s a car we’re sure everyone has… opinions on. Things could have been very different at the start of the 1980s, though.

The Pinin was a four-door saloon concept conceived to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pininfarina design studio, which was celebrating that milestone in 1980. Though it was built on the chassis of a V12-powered 400GT, power came from the 4.9-litre flat-12 used by the 512 BB supercar. Though production was at least considered, it wasn’t viable in the economic turmoil of the very early 1980s.

Unlike most concepts, though, the Pinin did have a second life. Some 30 years on from its debut, in 2010, the car – now in private hands – was transformed from a motor-show mockup into a fully running vehicle.

Image: Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ford Maya

Mid-engined fever was sweeping lots of manufacturers in the 1980s, and while Ford only jumped on that train with limited-production stuff like the RS200, it definitely thought about making it more accessible. The Maya was a 1984 study for a reasonably attainable mid-engined sports car, which would have made a handy rival for the likes of the Lotus Esprit.

The wedgy styling was courtesy of Giorgetto Giugiaro, and while the working concept’s 3.0-litre V6 had a measly 140bhp, the production version – which was seriously considered – would have had a Yamaha-developed version of the same engine with a much healthier 250bhp. Why didn’t production happen? Who knows, but it left the USA’s mid-engined output of the 1980s to be spearheaded by the Pontiac Fiero. Oh dear.

Chevrolet Corvette Indy

Of course, mid-engined American cars have come a long way since. Just look at the new Chevrolet Corvette. You might know, though, that while the C8 was the first production Corvette to go mid-engined, Chevy had been flirting with the idea for a long time – since the late ’60s, in fact.

This list is about the 1980s, though – a decade in which the mid-engined ’Vette dream was represented by the 1986 Indy concept. Its slippery carbon-kevlar body was pure sci-fi, and underneath it was full of tech we’re only just starting to see in road cars today: active suspension, steer-by-wire, camera for mirrors, and more.

It still had V8 power, but not your typical bigger-is-better American eight-pot: in the original concept, it was a 2.7-litre twin-turbo unit, said to be making over 600bhp. Later functional promo cars used the regular 5.7-litre engine from the contemporary Corvette, mind you.

Porsche Panamericana

Ever wished your Porsche 911 was also an open-roofed dune buggy? No, us neither, but we’re still glad Porsche decided to explore what that might look like with the 1989 Panamericana concept. Based on a 964 Carrera 4, and conceived as an 80th birthday present for then-Porsche chairman Ferry Porsche, its slashy bodywork was made from carbon-fibre reinforced plastic.

Once again, the harsh realities of economics prevented production, but the Panamericana was a glimpse at what to expect from the styling of the 993 911 a few years later. And of course, decades later, we would get an off-road-ready production 911 – the excellent Dakar.

Nissan MID4

Remember what we were saying about everyone going a bit mid-engined mad in the 1980s? Meet Nissan’s jumping-on point for this particular bandwagon, the MID4. As that name suggests, it was not only mid-engined, but four-wheel drive.

First unveiled in 1984 with a 242bhp naturally aspirated 3.0-litre V6, an overhauled version arrived three years later with twin turbos and 325bhp. All of this would have beaten the Honda NSX to being a usable Japanese answer to the Porsche 911 and Ferrari 348, had our old friend economics not gotten in the way once again. Like other cars on this list, though, some of its tech did trickle down into future production cars – the VG30 engine would go on to power the Nissan 300ZX, and the four-wheel drive system formed the basis of the ATTESA setup in the Skyline GT-R.

MG EX-E

The 1980s were perhaps only slightly better for British Leyland (renamed the Rover Group in 1986) than the 1970s had been, but there was some serious ambition at the company during the decade. Just look at the 1985 MG EX-E.

Like the MID4, this was a mid-engined, four-wheel drive 3.0-litre V6 sports car, this time with its engine and powertrain (theoretically) coming from the mad Metro 6R4 Group B rally car. In projected roadgoing guise, that meant around 250bhp. Despite the ’80s concept hallmarks – glass canopy, mass of CRT screens on the inside – it didn’t look too far off something that could have been made, so it’s all the sadder it wasn’t. Unlike most cars on this list, though, you can go see the EX-E – it now lives at the British Motor Museum.

Saab EV-1

Don’t panic: that name doesn’t stand for ‘electric vehicle’, but rather ‘experimental vehicle’. Beneath the EV-1’s wedgy, glassy bodywork lay the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot from a Saab 900 Turbo, although turned up to around 285bhp.

That doesn’t mean the EV-1 wasn’t forward-thinking, though: embedded into its removable glass were a mass of solar cells that helped supplement the car’s regular heating and ventilation systems. Designed to be extra-slippery, its 0.32 drag coefficient helped it along to a theoretical 168mph top speed. More of a tech testbed than something conceived with possible production in mind, it’s nevertheless an example of the sort of left-field thinking that makes us miss Saab.

Mitsubishi HSR

Another of the genre of ‘Hey, look what we can do!’ concepts, the 1987 Mitsubishi HSR featured a slippery body, a mid-mounted (obvs) 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder, and future-facing tech like active suspension, four-wheel steering, active aero and sat nav.

It was the first in a series of five concepts that appearung every other year until 1997, and you might remember the 1989 HSR-II from Gran Turismo 4. None of them were ever even considered for production as far as we know, but existed to showcase tech that could – and did – trickle down onto Mitsubishi road cars.

Isuzu 4200R

These days, Isuzu only builds commercial vehicles and rugged body-on-frame pickups and SUVs. It’s hard to believe that 35 years ago, the same company was parading a mid-engined supercar concept with a 350bhp, 4.2-litre V8 developed by Lotus (both companies were GM-owned at the time).

That’s exactly what the 1989 4200R was, though. It boasted a roomy interior and everything we’d come to expect from an ‘80s concept – active this and digital that, plus a stunning body that nevertheless didn’t look too far-fetched for production. Sadly, it arrived just as Isuzu was moving away from traditional passenger cars and into trucks and SUVs, so it remains a ‘what could have been’ moment, once again rescued from semi-obscurity by a Gran Turismo appearance.

Image: Spoondeep, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons,