#carsthatnevermadeit

In the early 1950s, Iso Spa made refrigerators and scooters. Owner Renzo Rivolta moved into cars with a tiny, egg-shaped model using a motorcycle engine. The Isetta was introduced in 1953 and sold well but trailed off with sales ending in 1955. Rivolta’s trick was to licence production, most notably to BMW, for whom the Italian bubble car was a life-saver, selling a total of 161,728 units and keeping the company afloat when production ended in 1962.

The Buick Division also contributed to the effort to increase the appeal of their cars to women with a range of “fashion tops” for the 1961 Electra 225 Convertible. The tops were mock-ups made by stretching designer fabrics over fibreglass carcasses; they never made into Buick’s showrooms.

The Fiat X1/9 was designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone, going on sale in 1972. In 1982, the car became the Bertone X1/9 with full production moving to Bertone. Fiat withdrew from the US market in 1982, so sales of the Bertone X1/9 in the US transferred to International Automobile Importers Inc. As US sales declined, in 1987 Bertone experimented with a fully convertible Bertone X1/9 Spider. The model failed to progress beyond the prototype stage; sales of the targa top model ended in 1989

Pietro Frua had worked with German car-maker Glas during the 1960s, so when BMW took over their struggling rivals in 1968, Frua hoped to continue the relationship. The Italian coachbuilder presented four different proposals for BMW coupés; the E12-based BMW 528 GT Coupé, revealed 50 years ago at the Turin Motor Show, was the last. None of Frua’s BMW coupé prototypes were taken up by the Bavarians. 

The 1938 Hispano-Suiza H6C Dubonnet Xenia Coupé was built as a rolling showcase for advanced automotive technology. It was commissioned by André Dubonnet, designed by Jean Andréau, and built by French coachbuilder Jacques Saoutchik. Dubonnet sold the patent for his independent suspension to Alfa Romeo, GM, Fiat, and Delahayes.

The 1966 Fiat Dino Spider was designed at Pininfarina by Aldo Brovarone, who additionally proposed a hardtop version with 2+2 seating (he also designed a 4-seat variant with a more squared-off roofline). Fiat had sort styling prototype from both Pininfarina and Bertone for their Ferrari-engined coupé. They passed on Brovarone’s Fiat Dino Berlinetta and chose instead the coupé envisioned by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Carrozzeria Bertone.

The 1973 Porsche FLA Type 296 (Forschungsprojekt Langzeit-Auto or "Long-life Car Research Project") was an experimental car designed to explore the possibility of a vehicle built to last for 20 years or 300,000 kilometres, presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The project aimed to shift the automotive industry away from planned obsolescence and towards extreme durability through high-quality materials and simplified mechanics, so of course, it went no further.

Another concept turning 50 this year, the Ferrari 308GT Rainbow was designed at Bertone by Marcello Gandini. The boxy wedge-shaped prototype featured a folding targa top similar in design to the one used on the much more recent 458 Spider. Presented at the Turin Motor Show, it was based on the Gandini-designed Dino (later Ferrari) 308 GT4 with a shorter wheelbase and just two seats. Ferrari had already chosen Pininfarina to design the production 308 GTB, so the Rainbow was only ever going to be a one-off.