Favorite Concept Car

Quite often here in the blog we throw you a teaser of things to come in the automotive market place: renderings, concepts, and a mule or two for those lucky enough to live that long. Alas, most concepts never make it past their auto show debuts before–they’re put out to pasture, absorbed by obscure private collections, or just crushed. In a lot of cases, we mourn their passing or rage against the automakers that won’t build one for us to buy. So my question is:  out of all the concepts you’ve seen over the years, which one would you want? My pick would be the 1997 Pontiac Rageous. For more on the Rageous, follow the jump.

The “Rageous” debuted at the 1997 North American International Auto Show when Pontiac’s new bold style was at its height (excessive cladding, red gauges, and wings on everything). This concept was no exception. Painted “Red Rush,” outfitted with a crazy spoiler and ram air hood, the Rageous was far from subtle. If you think it looks a whole lot like a 2002 Firebird, you wouldn’t be far off. This car was slated to have the same LS1 drivetrain rated at 315hp, adding some serious grunt to those 315/30r22 tires it’s rolling on. As high performance  as this car is though, I’d like to think that this car (had it been released) would have been the ultimate SPORT utility vehicle. The body has no B-pillar, from roof to floor. The doors were instead hinged on the A-pillar and the C-pillar, a lot like a Honda Pilot is today.  Add to that the fact that the rear glass is a hatch-and-tailgate assembly, which later appeared on the ill-fated Aztek, and you’ve got a 117in wheelbase car that can haul a 4×8 sheet of plywood and a passenger!   It predated the modern “crossover” by years, and if it doesn’t define “sport utility,” I don’t know what does.