There have been thousands of concepts over the years, some of which have offered us a preview of a production model. In many cases, however, the concept never reached production; it ended its days gathering dust in some warehouse.

That’s not necessarily such a bad thing of course; if all concepts reached production, we’d be saddled with the horrific Lagonda SUV unveiled in 2009. But not all concepts are so badly misjudged. There have been dozens over the years that have deserved to succeed. Cars with cutting-edge technology, great looks – or both.

Here we present some of the greatest concepts of the past three decades, most of which still look great.