Yesterday’s Future - Concept Cars of the 1960s

Yesterday’s Future – Concept Cars of the 1960s

5 January 2022 Redazione Lifestyle, News, Supercars Lounge

Yesterday’s Future – Concept Cars of the 1960s

By Andrea Albertazzi

If time machine will be ever invented, I challenge anyone not to choose the legendary 60s as their destination, perhaps only after a quick visit to the certainly more dangerous prehistory. Dinosaurs aside, the decade that has probably more than any other characterized an entire millennium is precisely that of the sixties, an era of full economic boost, of pioneering in which mankind even managed to set foot on the Moon, distorting forever the concept of science fiction and thus making the border with reality imperceptible. It was also a decade in which we no longer only thought about what it would take to make life better, but also about everything that would make it more enjoyable. In no other period beauty is celebrated as a pure desire for elegance and class as in the 60s.

These are just some of the reasons that have outlined the social and economic background of a world that stopped moving in one direction and began to look beyond, to dream and create objects that would make everyday life a fantastic journey destined to be passed on to future generations. The automotive world was experiencing a magical moment, having resumed its business at full speed now that the Second World War was becoming an increasingly distant memory and was characterized by the numerous designers that were ready to satisfy the most extravagant requests of wealthy customers. But the sixty were not only for a few lucky ones, because at the various car shows everyone could admire and appreciate models with unique shapes and which sometimes looked like real spaceships.

It is the decade in which the soft and sinuous lines of the most beautiful cars of all time coexisted with the edges ready to underline the near future, but above all doubt it was the period in which Italy almost monopolized the sector with immortal names such as Pininfarina, Bertone, Giugiaro, Zagato, Vignale, Italdesign, Michelotti and we could go on for hours. The best way to make this exceptional and sometimes even extravagant journey into the golden decade of automotive design is by browsing through Richard Heseltine’s new book, published by Porter Press International, entitled “Yesterday’s Future – Concept Cars of the 1960s”.

Through 240 pages and over 350 images it is possible to retrace the most famous models, prototypes and concept cars and also those we are sure you have never heard of. There is everything, from wonderful prototypes to the quirky ones, from models that have introduced solutions taken on large production to slightly less refined experiments. Neatly divided in chronological order, Heseltine’s book presents about 200 concept cars carefully described and introduced in the historical period of reference, specifying the salient details that made them innovative and analyzing those trends that went crazy and that contributed to pieces often singular and certainly impossible to forget. For example, we find cars like the 1960 Lancia Loraymo, the 1963 Prince 1900 Sprint, the 1966 AMC Rambleseat and the 1969 Pininfarina 512S Berlinetta Speciale and never as in this case every chapter – every page – deserves to be literally lived, a little as if the destination of your time travel dated 1960 did not foresee a return to the present day, thus letting immerse yourself in the golden age of automotive design.