Car Care

Exner and Chrysler, of course. The Gilda looks like a full-size version of a pull-back toy, like if you moved it back and forth a few time you could zing it across the living room floor.

It was not originally powered or intended to run, but it now boasts a gas turbine powerplant.

Familiar names here. Once again, Virgil Exner blows past everyone’s ideas of what car design should look like.

The XNR is a Plymouth Valiant chassis with an asymmetrical body and interior.

The engine is far less jet-age; it’s a reliable slant-six. It returns to Pebble Beach for a second appearance (first being 2011).

Designed by Okuyama, who supervised the Ferrari Enzo and P4/5 designs, this car celebrates the wedge with a carbon-fiber body and 690-hp 6.5-liter V-12. It’s based on a Lamborghini Aventador.

Return of the “Ace of Spades,” the modern version of the Italian Audi wedge is an electric 2+2 with cameras, polarized windows and roof, an F1-style steering wheel, and sliding doors.

Designed by Marcello Gandini, this prototype differed from the V16T production cars in many ways, but it was the same in the most important one: behind the seats is a transverse-mounted 6.0-liter V-16 hooked to a five-speed manual transmission. The Cizeta-Moroder was the car to have when a V-12 just wasn’t enough.

The HP-X was a test bed to develop the eventual Acura NSX. The car has no doors, and the entire canopy is raised to access the interior. The canopy also serves as an air brake. That part never made it to the NSX.

Word is Honda lost this car for many years and eventually found it in a Pininfarina warehouse in Italy.

Would you believe this is a Fox-body Ford? Indeed it is, and the Probe was the star of the 1979 Frankfurt show. Its 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder (from the Mustang Cobra) presaged the powerplant in the SVO Mustang.

The Bulldog was Aston’s answer to the Ferrari and Lamborghini mid-engine cars of the day, and though it never saw production, Aston bragged of its 200-mph capability. That was never proved until 2023, when the car ran 205 mph at Machrihanish airfield in the U.K.

The Rainbow, designed by Bertone, had a retractable hardtop 35 years before the 458 Spider.

Word is that Enzo wasn’t a fan of the design and swore never to use Bertone again.

The mid-engine Corvette was originally a rotary test bed. The Aerovette was an Arkus-Duntov project for the Paris auto salon, then the Corvette 4-Rotor. It was later fitted with a stroked small block and renamed Aerovette.

Now that’s what a BMW nose should look like.

Where many of the cars in the field never made it past prototype, the Countach is a full production wedge design.

What’s that? A rare Ferrari at Pebble. With the Pininfarina coupe, the famous Italian automaker took a stab at space age inspiration. The entire cockpit top slides forward for entry. It too has been to Pebble in the past, for the 2006 100th anniversary of Pininfarina.

The designer of the HF1.6, Tom Tjaarda, also worked on the Ferrari 365 California and the De Tomaso Pantera.

Like the XNR, the Cannara is named for its designer, Ray Cannara, an art student from Art Center in Pasadena. The Cannara now has a 350 Chevy small-block, replacing its orginal 289. Cannara drove the car across the country in 1966, twice!

Well of course. You were expecting this one, right? Lamborghini Miura and Countach designer Marcello Gandini did the work on the 33-inch-high Zero. To get in you have to climb over the hood.

This is the only silver W8 ever made, and one of just 17 cars total. It was plenty fast, with a twin-turbo 6.0-liter Rodeck V-8, but the company faced constant financial headwinds and went out of business in 1993.

What a name! United Nude is a design firm whose work focuses on stripping away details until the essence of a shape is all that remains. When asked about the name, the owner reportedly said he wanted NU, but that was trademarked. Apparently United Nude was plan B. The car is functional but not street-legal. It’s considered an inspiration for the Tesla Cybertruck.

Wankel-powered, and Ezra-Dyer-driven, just this week.