Concept cars have always been an opportunity to go mad with a pen and create something that kids dream of. Ultimate cars in all sorts of shapes and sizes, with massively powerfully engine and millions of pounds spent on their development so they can sit proudly on stands where the general public can gawk at them.

Pointless you’d think. But over the years some concept have been more than just pieces of motionless art. If you look hard enough some of the hyper performance outrageous looking prototypes can actual achieve the earth shattering performance they boast.

The Oldsmobile Aerotech (above) is just one example. This little known American experimental race car shocked the public when it was unveiled in 1989.  Two versions of the car were built. A short tail version and an enhanced long tail version like the one pictured above

In particular the long tailed version achieved some astonishing speed at the Salt Lake Flats in Utah. With just a two litre turbocharged engine producing somewhere in the region of 750bhp at the centre of a car which weighed 1600 lbs, the Aerotech topped out at 278mph.

The Aerotech may be one of the most impressive high performance concept cars ever built but it is certainly not without companions. 21^st century examples include the Chrysler ME412, Cadillac Cien, and more recently the Audi R-Zero. And with motoring industries seemingly unquenchable thirst for hyper performance there will no doubt be plenty more to come.