Lincoln Futura, Turquoise Metallic

Few concept cars ever escaped the show stand with as much theatre as the Lincoln Futura. Hand-built by Ghia in Turin in 1955 at a reported cost approaching a quarter-million dollars, it was Lincoln's rolling laboratory: a double-bubble clear canopy, hooded headlamp pods set into outward-canted fins, and those exaggerated rear fins trailing into pointed taillight clusters that defined the jet-age optimism of mid-fifties Detroit. The deep grille mouth and the broad chrome bumper-and-taillamp assembly at the rear give it a sense of motion even at rest. It is best remembered, of course, for its second life (repainted black, it became the original Batmobile), but in this form it stands as a pure expression of what designers imagined the future would look like.

The model is finished in the Futura's original turquoise-blue metallic, with chrome trim, whitewall tyres and the twin Plexiglas bubbles picked out cleanly over a tan interior. It is built at 1:18 and sits on a fabric-topped presentation base with a marque plaque, a faithful record of one of the era's most extravagant dream cars.