10 Cars That Were Ahead of Their Time

Some cars are popular. Some will be remembered for a long time, for good or bad reasons (here's looking at you, Fiat Multipla, Pontiac Aztek and Ssangyong Stavic). But then there are those where a single model can change the course of motoring history. Show us what is possible in the realm of everyday motoring. And introduce new features, or packaging, that will only become ordinary years later.

Here, then, is a round-up of 10 models we thought were years ahead of their peers. Each one introduced something new to its class, whether that was new engine technology, a new dashboard or clever repackaging of space in the confines of the modern family car.

Renault Avantime

Model years: 2001–2003

cropped-Renault-Avantime-200doors

Hey, why not build a van with only two doors? And make it look futuristic, okay, as in a bullet-train nose, and with a severely sloped windshield? Of course, if you are a French manufacturer, this brief might not seem ridiculous at all. Why, if your bread is three feet long and frog legs are considered a good dinner option, an awkward-looking van is nothing to smirk at.

When Renault wowed the crowds at the 1999 Geneva Auto Show with its new Avantime, in concept form labeled the Coupespace, the futuristic two-door coupe with the appearance of an MPV and the size of a luxury van had everyone struggling for words. What exactly was this? The Avantime, brought to market in 2001 virtually unchanged from Patrick Lequement's initial design, was clearly a bit of everything.

Renault

Eyeing a niche, but the public shunned it

It had a sloping nose, frameless doors, no B-pillars in order to ease ingress to the rear, and a long, high-roofed body. Renault's idea was that it should be a luxury coupe, but very practical as well, light and airy with a panoramic sunroof and big glasshouse. It eyed a new niche in the market, but the public never bothered too much. Sales flopped quickly, and the whole project was canned only two years after launch, in 2003.

Avantime - "ahead of its time," literally – the big Renault bus was indeed. But maybe a bit too much, mon dieu!

Chrysler Turbine Car

Model years: 1963–1964

chrysler turbine

We love curveballs, and the Chrysler Turbine Car is exactly that. The Turbine Car was on the cusp of being a normal production run model for Chrysler, but in the end only 55 of them were built (five prototypes and 50 for public use), and then soon after it was offered to a selected group for a test phase, it was taken back again by Chrysler. But we'll consider it as a normal production version of a great idea.

What made the Turbine Car so fascinating is exactly what its name says: It was powered by a turbine, not a conventional combustion engine. Development started after the Second World War with the premise that a turbine engine runs smoother than a piston engine (as it had no pistons) and could be fueled by anything from gas to diesel, kerosene, food oil or even tequila (as Mexico's president, who was loaned a model, demonstrated). After three testing engine units, the fourth version was deemed useable in a production model. Italian coachbuilder Ghia produced a two-door coupe, with a lot of aeronautic influences to highlight the car's strange propulsion system, like the pointed turbine tip in the center of the grill, and the shifter in the shape of a plane's throttle handle.

Smooth operator, sluggish accelerator

The turbine would spin at anything between 18,000 rpm at idle to 60,000 rpm at full speed, producing a relative power output of 130 hp and 425 lb-ft of torque. While the engine's operation was smooth, the car's acceleration was sluggish (Chrysler brought its sprint time down from 18 seconds to 12), and its exhaust gas emissions were high. A complicated, eight-step ignition process also had the testing group a bit perplexed.

The Turbine Car was unfortunately too complex (plus the use of rare metals in the turbine) and therefore too expensive to build to be commercially viable. Its high noise levels, heavy fuel usage, high emissions and slow acceleration also counted against it. A pity, as the tech is all futuristic, like an episode straight out of Futurama.

Porsche 959

Model years: 1986–1993

Porsche 959 Silver Front Angle View Cornering

Visually, Porsche's technologically advanced 959 of nearly three decades ago looks a bit like a Beetle tuned for the local club's oval track racing event, what with all those added on body parts around the wheels and the doors, and the big wing slapped onto the tail. But look beneath the metal, and the 959 truly reveals itself.

Fastest street-legal car of its time

The 959 came into existence as part of Porsche's participation in the mid-1980's Group B rally program, where it had to produce 200 street legal models of its rally car to comply with the FIA's homologation regulations. When it hit the road in 1986, the 959 was the fastest street-legal production car of the time, with a top speed of 197 mph (and some variants hiking that up to a blistering 211 mph). The 959 used a twin-turbo-version (sequential, instead of parallel, for a smoother power delivery through the rev range) of the group's 2.8-liter flat-six, combined with a six-speed manual gearbox which sent power to all four wheels. To keep the car's weight down, aluminum for the body, magnesium for the wheels and even Kevlar in some places, were used extensively in constructing the body and chassis.

Other technical wizardry included an early form of torque-vectoring where power was sent variously between the rear and front axles, plus an automatic ride-height adjustment to optimize drag at high speeds. Only 337 models were ever built, making the 959 a very rare and exotic supercar today.

Citroën DS

Model years: 1955–1975

1968+ Citroen DS 21 Facelift Blue Front Angled View

Stunning the public in 1955's still bleak post-war Europe with its sleek, aerodynamic design, the Citroën DS set new benchmarks in ride quality, handling, and braking, thanks to both being the first mass-production car equipped with hydro-pneumatic suspension and disc brakes. After switching the car on, it would lift itself up in its haunches, and drop again when stationary. The 1967 series 3 model also introduced directional headlights to a mass-produced car.

Dramatic, but also complicated

It was these features, along with the futuristic, sleek design of Flaminio Bertoni, that set the DS apart from anything else on the road in the 1950s. The hydropneumatic suspension was complicated and difficult to fix once anything happened to it. But boy was it a dramatic sight to see the car lift itself up and drive away. Among the lift trickery, the hydraulics included automatic self-levelling and driver-adjustable ride-height settings, all developed in-house. There was also power-steering, a semi-automatic gearbox (no clutch needed, but you still had to manually shift the gears), and a fiberglass roof.

Over its 20-year lifespan, with only one generation produced (but three updates rendered), Citroën sold nearly 1.5 million models all over the world. A legend then, and still today.

Honda Insight

Model years: 1999–2006

2000-2006 Honda Insight Purple Front Angle

The first generation Insight was as much a leap in technology for Honda as it was a backwards step in design. Ground-hugging body panels and solid wheels screamed "designed for the wind tunnel". But it was those huge skirts over the rear wheels that really made the first-generation Insight look like a dog with its tail between its legs.

But in 1999, the Insight was all the tech-leader there ever was. Beating the Toyota Prius by a couple of months in the American market, the small two-door liftback model became the US's first hybrid available. With fuel consumption front and foremost in mind, the body (made of aluminum) was extremely sleek (0.25 Cd) to the point of looking a bit silly. Under the hood sat a 1.0-liter-inline-3, which was mated to an e-motor. Power for the e-motor was a battery bank of 120 nickel-metal hydride batteries, providing a meager 144V of power.

Narrow track and skirts didn't help it

Working in tandem, the system produced 54 hp and 91 lb-ft of torque, enough to help the lightweight Insight (1,847 lb) to a combined consumption figure of 53 mpg. The Insight won't win any design competitions, and the narrower track at the rear (4 inches) plus those skirts over the wheels doesn't help either. But it set the tone for the hybrid car of the future. Today we have basically the same propulsion system, but luckily with normal designs.

Mercedes 300 SL

Model years: 1954–1957

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Side

As its name hinted, the superlight (SL = super leicht) 300 SL was an early demonstration by the German car giant of its engineering prowess, even only shortly after the ravages of the Second World War. With its tubular chassis design to help keep weight down, and the gull wing doors for the coupe, the 300 SL could bost both visual drama and engineering ingenuity. The three-liter straight-six used innovative fuel injection to help boost power, and top speed was rated at 162 mph - making it the fastest production car of the time.

The 300 SL – and the role of America in its birth

An interesting fact is that the big American market played a significant role in the birth of the 300 SL. The group's American importer all but guaranteed sales in excess of 1,000 models, which gave Mercedes the assurance to go ahead with the expensive project. Apart from the steel chassis, other body parts such as the bonnet, doors, dashboard, and boot lid were all made of aluminum to help reduce weight. Fuel consumption (14 mpg), though, wasn't high on the engineers' list of things to get right.

Today, with only 1,400 coupes built, the 300 SL is one of the most sought-after cars on the classic car circuit, with models reaching anything from $2,5 million to $3,5 million at auction.

Tucker 48

Model years: 1948

1948 Tucker 48 Blue Front Angled View

As World War II wrapped up in the mid-1940s, a unique situation emerged in the American automotive industry. While the Big Three companies in Detroit were still feeling the effects of investing in and producing war machinery, an opening formed for smaller, independent car companies to quickly put a modern vehicle onto the market.

Studebaker was one to see the gap, but another was Tucker, whose owner, Preston Tucker, had already been working on a concept since before the war. His new model, a sleek two-door coupe with a modern design, was simply called the 48 (the year it was released). From the outside, there was a prominent third headlight in the center of the nose (which could turn along with the steering wheel - a first for American cars), while the low body, high glass house and air intakes in front of the rear wheels gave it a distinctive look.

Big, bad, boxer-6 in the tail

Innovations were plenty. The engine was a unique 5.5-liter boxer-6, positioned in the rear and with a water-cooled aluminum block. The 48 also boasted independent suspension and disc brakes on all four corners. Other novelties of the time were things like seatbelts, a padded dashboard for safety in crashes, a lockable parking brake, and fuel-injection.

In the end, the project proved to be too intricate and costly for the small company. After only 51 models were built, the company had to file for bankruptcy in 1949 and close its doors. Making this one of the most sought-after, and interesting, American cars of the post-war era.

Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR-4

Model years: 1990–2000

1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4

In what is considered today the golden era of Japan's supercar years, the slightly offbeat Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi came out with a performance coupe that not only rivaled its esteemed competitors – like the rotary-powered Mazda RX-7, the Toyota Supra and the Nissan 300ZX – it also overtook them in the technology stakes with a performance package unlike any of its competitors.

Bring a Trailer

The top model (there were also non-turbo versions) was the 3000GT VR-4, and was built in three separate generations from 1991 to 1999. The longish name was a way to designate its drivetrain, with the 3000 pointing to the engine size, and the VR-4 an abbreviation for "viscous realtime-4wd". As is clear, the four-wheel-drive system used a central differential with a viscous coupling to divert power as needed between the front and rear axles.

More grand tourer than nimble racer

The big V6 was transversely mounted in the nose, and after an initial period of a five-speed Getrag-manual, Mitsubishi switched to a six-speed 'box (with a tall sixth gear for extra top speed) from the 1994 model years onwards. Performance was excellent for the era, and acceleration times below five seconds weren't unheard of. Its bulging waistline (3,737 pounds) counted against it, in the end, as in-gear acceleration was hampered, making the GT more of a quick grand tourer than a nimble racer.

Aston Martin Lagonda

Model years: 1974–1990

cropped-Aston_Martin-Lagonda-1976Front

If you like your wedge designs in cars, with lots of straight lines and sharp edges, the Aston Martin Lagonda is an instant classic. After an initial model in 1974, Aston came up with a new, and now familiar, design (by William Towns) with a dramatic wedge shape and straight lines on the nose and rear-end.

Best known for its two-door coupes and convertibles, Aston tried to broaden its appeal by introducing the longer, four-door sedan but keeping the luxury and performance, courtesy of the familiar, monstrous V8 of the coupes under the Lagonda's long, rakish hood.

Modern electronics (which soon were ditched)

As distinct as the design and eye-watering as the price was – the hand-built model was one of the most expensive cars of its era, with only the Rolls-Royce Silver Spur and Bentley Mulsanne beating it – the Lagonda's real ingenuity came from its modern interior. It is said that the development cost for the electronics alone on the Lagonda came to four times as much as the budget for the whole car. For that money you'd get a digital (LCD) instrument panel (said to be the first production car to receive this), pop-up headlights, and touch-button controls (which were dropped by the company in 1980 already, due to unreliability).

As stunning as the Lagonda looked, its reputation for hyper-modern but fiddly electronics chased it all the way through its existence. In the end, only 645 models were sold.

BMW i3

Model years: 2014–2021

Blue 2015 BMW I3 nose

As the quest for battery-electric vehicles quickened in the early 2000s, BMW – and many other German manufacturers – decided to build a separate model portfolio for their new EVs, all under the new i brand. For its first onslaught, the company released in quick succession the small city runabout, the i3, and the low-slung coupe, the i8.

The i3 was groundbreaking in several ways, not least in spearheading BMW's new path into the unknown world of EV mass production for family cars. The i3 had a small body with a high roof, and a fairly big glasshouse. BMW tried to save weight everywhere by using a high-strength, ultra-lightweight carbon fiber-reinforced polymer for the passenger cell, adhered to an aluminum chassis. Another smart design feature was the two clamshell rear-hinged rear doors.

Plenty of awards for the i3

After launching in 2013, it was quickly lauded as groundbreaking, winning awards for World Green Car of the Year (2014) and World Car Design of the Year (2014). Although the initial battery was only a 22 kWh unit, the little i3 could still churn out a decent driving range of 100 miles thanks to its low weight (2,635 lb). Later on, a model with a so-called range-extender was added, using a 650cc bike engine. The engine would work as a generator for the battery, helping it to a range of 150 miles.

Today, EVs have come a long way. BMW has since decided to offer an EV model besides a normal ICE, hybrid and plug-in hybrid models for each of its family cars. But it all started just over a decade ago when the diminutive little i3 was shown to the world.