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"This Year's Most Inventive Concept Cars\nConcept-car designs give us the auto industry at its most optimistic, creative, and, occasionally, impractical. Concepts always get attention, but the following cars, many which debuted at auto shows in 2011, especially turned heads. Here's what the four-wheeled future just might look like\nNo other automobile exemplified the dolce vita period of midcentury Italy like the cheap and cheerful Fiat 500. The car became extinct in 1975, but a technologically updated version went on sale last year for a new generation of American buyers. Fiat fans can soon look for a manifestation in this concept coupe\u2014a 105-horsepower turbo hatchback in eye-popping yellow\u2014by Milan auto design workshop Zagato.\nBMW created this extremely lightweight six-cylinder concept to honor the 75th anniversary of its beloved classic sports car, the 328. With its hood straps, carved-down sides, and kidney-shaped grille, the design is retro cool, like a space-age version of the '60s Shelby Cobra.\nPerfect for driving through the South of France, the Rialto in Venice, or St. Barts, the Bamboo is constructed of eco-friendly materials and features an inflatable roof and (removable) rear seats, as well as a dash-mounted web cam. Introduced at the 2011 Geneva Auto Show by Swiss design shop Rinspeed in partnership with pop artist James Rizzi, this runabout has an electric engine that tops out at 75 m.p.h.\nThis sexy, missile-shaped Aston Martin, made in collaboration with the auto design house Zagato, premiered at the Villa D'Este Concours in Lake Como, Italy, in May. Inspired by the British automaker's classic DB4 model and built on the chassis of a V12 Vantage, this concept would no doubt inspire Agent 007 to head to his local dealership for a trade-in.\nThe VW microbus was once the vehicle of choice for the Summer of Love set who lived by the credo, If the van's a rockin', don't come a knockin'. This ancient symbol of the '60s made a return last year at the Geneva Auto Show in the form of the Bulli, a 21st-century reincarnation that runs on battery power and allows riders to control its groovy infotainment center using the Apple iPad.\nSaab's PhoeniX concept is intended as a hybrid-electric, all-wheel-drive sports coupe, uniquely engineered so that a gasoline motor drives the front wheels while the rear wheels are electrically powered. Saab has always been known for its offbeat styling, and the drag-defying winglets atop the PhoeniX\u2014vaguely reminiscent of Brunhilde's Valkyrie helmet\u2014continue the carmaker's eccentric direction.\nWith the auto world fixated on future electric and hybrid experimental vehicles, here's a novel concept from Scion that has an odds-on chance of being put into production: a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports coupe, just like they used to build them. With its low center of gravity, wide stance, smooth surfaces, and giant 20-inch wheels, you can imagine stepping on the gas and feeling the 2.0-liter boxer engine slingshot you down the road.\nThe Chinese have always had a thing for Buicks, so there was no better place to introduce the Envision than the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show, where the designers spoke (somewhat inscrutably) of the SUV's \"fluid dynamics and peaceful comfort.\" Among the concept's coolest features are a 3-D heads-up informational display projected onto the windshield, and mounted cameras standing in for rear and side mirrors. Viewed from the three-quarter angle, Envision looks a bit like a water balloon about to burst, but in profile, the sight of the car's windows curving into the solar-paneled roof make it a seamless delight.\nJaguar has come up with a stunning shape for its future electric sports vehicle, but what's truly daring about the C-X75 are the four electric motors designed to be recharged using twin microturbine engines\u2014small versions of those that power jets. Turbine cars are not a new idea\u2014Chrysler experimented with them first in the '40s\u2014but if Jaguar can solve the difficulties of turbine stability while meeting federal emissions standards, this technology may just be the breakthrough of the century.\nThis concept is still very much on the drawing board, mainly because the technology and know-how to produce it still haven't been invented. The Mercedes-Benz Biome's basic building material, BioFibre, a substance lighter than plastic or metal but stronger than steel, would be custom grown in laboratories by mixing a genetic code with a seed capsule (or something like that). The car would, in effect, power itself using sunlight, and be 100 percent biodegradable. It all sounds wildly far-fetched, but who knows what the future might bring."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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