Yahoo Autos Here's $1 billion: In honor of the Detroit Auto Show, buy any concept car from history
The Detroit Auto Show is underway, and anytime we return to Cobo Hall Huntington Place — or any other show venue — memories of concept cars come flooding back. With that in mind, let's pretend we're rich and important enough to afford whatever we want.
In this case, the budget is a cool billion dollars, because, why not? Let's also say that amount buys you the opportunity to purchase any concept car from history. The current owner doesn't want to sell? A phone call will take care of that.
So there you go. Just a few rules:
You must purchase a concept car.
You've can't spend more than $1 billion.
If your favorite concept car was lost in a fire or something, you can restore it by commissioning an exact replica within the budget.
With that in mind, here's what the Autoblog staff is buying ...
Cadillac Sixteen (2003)
Senior Editor John Beltz Snyder: I was tempted to choose the Olds Golden Rocket you see above, but I went with something I've actually seen in person. I attended the Detroit Auto Show for the first time in 2003, the year Cadillac unveiled its Sixteen concept. Inspired by the Cadillac V-16 of old (and, therefore, part of the spiritual lineage of the new electric Celestiq flagship), it featured, you guessed it, 16 cylinders under that exceptionally lengthy side-opening hood. Displacing 13.6 liters, that engine put some 1,000 horsepower and 1,000 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels via a four-speed automatic. I loved it so much not just because it was incredibly striking in person, but that it did such a great job of blending heritage with then-futuristic design, which is something I always appreciate if pulled off well. It's such an intriguing example of Lutz-era GM mayhem. I'm lucky to have found a Hot Wheels version of the Sixteen for my son, and now that I've got a billion dollars, I can buy the real thing.
Lincoln Futura Concept (1955)
Senior Editor James Riswick: Is this answer really in the spirit of the exercise? I don't know, but the rather recognizable car you see above started life as the Lincoln Futura Concept that made its public debut at the 1955 Chicago Auto Show. According to the car's Wikipedia page, it was built by Ghia in Torino, Italy, at a cost of $250,000 or $2.7 million in today's funny money. It would eventually be painted red and featured in a Debbie Reynolds movie. It's a pretty sweet car and you can definitely see the elements that carried over to its next iteration: the Batmobile from the 1966 "Batman" TV show. Its creation undertaken by George Barris, who reportedly purchased the car from GM for $1. Talk about catastrophic depreciation ... and then astronomical appreciation! He had owned the car for several years before figuring it would be a good basis for the Batmobile, which needed to be completed quicker than originally planned. Barris actually maintained ownership of the car, leasing it to the TV show, until auctioning it in 2013 for $4.2 million. I'm guessing it would be worth just a weeeee bit more today. Per the rules, would I restore it to its original form? Um, no.
Chrysler ME Four-Twelve (2004)
Associate Editor Byron Hurd: Chrysler design was going places in the early aughts; too bad the rest of the company couldn't keep up. The ME Four-Twelve is one of those concepts whose name was derived very practically: Mid-Engine, Four Turbochargers and Twelve Cylinders. Simplicity itself. But you have to remember, these were the heady days of the "Merger of Equals." Under this Chrysler-designed exterior and alphanumeric nomenclature, those four turbos were feeding a 6.0-liter aluminum Mercedes-Benz V12 and the whole works was bolted to a seven-speed DCT. Total power? 850 horses. Top Speed? 248. Chryslers actually built that can do these things? Zero. It was perhaps too bold, even with the benefit of hindsight. Daimler-Chrysler's badass designers also brought us the Viper-derived Firepower prototype, but that's a concept (and in my case, a fetish) for another day.
