Sometimes your wallet won’t stretch to purchasing your dream motor. But don’t worry too much, there are some cars that even the biggest bank balances can’t buy, the dream cars that will forever remain a dream. These are the concept cars that never get made.
Alfa Romeo Caimano
Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign, the Caimano kept up a fine tradition in the 1970s of cars that looked like they had been borrowed from the set of Buck Rogers.
Giugiaro who hailed from a fine tradition of Italian car designers was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.
Giugiaro created some of the most striking car designs of all time, including the Lotus Esprit, the Maserati Spyder, Ferrari GG50 and might be best remembered for the DeLorean DMC-12 which featured in the Back to the Future series of movies.
The Italian designer also designed motorbikes, guns (?!?), cameras, computer prototypes for Apple and even a new shape of pasta - the Marille.
The Alfa Romeo Caimano was designed purely as a concept though and would not be seen beyond the 1971 Turin Motor Show.
Despite its futuristic designs, the Caimano came with quite a modest 1.2 litre engine and only 86hp, however, this was a vehicle all about the looks. The distinctive wedge design, typical of so many supercars of the 70s, was complimented by an equally striking bubble-domed roof, which flipped up to allow entry.
The Caimano was built on Alfa’s Alfasud platform and paid tribute to the new front-drive system. Featuring a boxer engine, four-wheel disc brakes and a five-speed manual gearbox, the concept even came with two little windows in the bubble, which were designed to allow the driver to pay on toll-roads, which considering the car only ever lived in Alfa’s museum in Arese, is a nice little touch.