🚗 Concept Cars & Design Trivia Questions & Answers
Wild prototypes, design language and the cars that never made the showroom. Below are 30 free concept cars & design trivia questions with answers — part of Cars trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Cars quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Concept Cars & Design trivia questions
Q1. Critics nicknamed the rear styling of which radical 2001 BMW sedan 'Bangle butt'?
Answer: The 7 Series
💡 Despite the backlash, that generation went on to become the best-selling 7 Series ever.
Q2. Fiat's 2007 modern 500 launched how many years after the original 1957 Nuova 500?
Answer: 50 years
💡 Unlike the original, the new car mounted its engine up front instead of over the rear axle.
Q3. Which nickname describes a pinched, hourglass-like waistline popular on 1960s cars?
Answer: Coke-bottle styling
💡 Chevrolet's Bill Mitchell popularized the look on the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray.
Q4. What nickname is Jaguar's famous leaping cat hood ornament, first fitted in 1938, usually known by?
Answer: The Leaper
💡 Founder Sir William Lyons reportedly wanted it to look like 'a cat shot off a fence.'
Q5. GM's famous Motorama show cars of the 1950s were dreamed up under which legendary design chief?
Answer: Harley Earl
💡 Earl also invented the clay modeling technique designers still use to sculpt car shapes today.
Q6. Which fiberglass sports car made its debut as a dream car at the 1953 GM Motorama?
Answer: Corvette
💡 GM never planned to sell the Corvette — public reaction at Motorama was so strong they rushed it into production.
Q7. What structural reason forced the Mercedes 300SL to get its famous upward-swinging doors in 1954?
Answer: Its tube-frame chassis had high door sills, leaving no room for normal hinges
💡 The doors got their nickname because they swing up and out like a seabird's wings.
Q8. Besides the DeLorean, which everyday hatchback did Giorgetto Giugiaro also design for Volkswagen?
Answer: The Golf
💡 Giugiaro's original 1974 Golf design helped define the entire hatchback segment.
Q9. What angular electric pickup did Tesla unveil in LA with a rocky live window-strength demo?
Answer: Cybertruck
💡 Despite the glass cracking on stage, Tesla later claimed roughly 200,000 orders came in within days.
Q10. What was the real purpose of GM's dazzling 1950s Motorama show cars, since none were ever for sale?
Answer: To gauge public reaction to future styling ideas
💡 A few, like the Corvette, impressed crowds so much they went straight into real production.
Q11. BMW's signature 'Hofmeister kink' rear-pillar bend was named after which design chief?
Answer: Wilhelm Hofmeister
💡 It first appeared on BMW's 1961 3200 CS and 1500 models and has featured on every BMW since.
Q12. Before leading Jaguar's design team, Ian Callum made his name styling which Aston Martin?
Answer: The DB7
💡 That work at TWR earned him the 1995 Jim Clark Memorial Award for styling.
Q13. The car body style 'shooting brake' first described a wagon built for what activity?
Answer: Hunting parties
💡 Its 'brake' half comes from a heavy carriage once used to break in young horses.
Q14. What car-design term names the glassed-in upper section of a car's body?
Answer: The greenhouse
💡 Designers separate it from the 'beltline,' the metal body sitting just below all that glass.
Q15. How many deposits did Citroën take in the first 15 minutes of unveiling its futuristic DS in 1955?
Answer: 743
💡 By the end of the 10-day show, total deposits hit 80,000 — a record that stood for over 60 years.
Q16. Founded by Giovanni in 1912, which Italian coachbuilder later styled the Miura and the Countach?
Answer: Bertone
💡 Giovanni's son Nuccio took over after WWII and split the firm into a manufacturing arm and a styling studio.
Q17. Which flashy 1959 land yacht is widely considered the peak of America's tailfin design era?
Answer: Cadillac Eldorado
💡 Its fins soared nearly 42 inches off the ground, making it the tallest-finned production car ever.
Q18. At Tesla's 2019 reveal, what happened when a ball was thrown at the truck's 'unbreakable' window?
Answer: The window glass cracked and shattered
💡 Tesla still leaned into the mishap afterward, selling merchandise that referenced the moment.
Q19. The 1961 Lincoln Continental's rear doors, hinged at the back rather than front, are nicknamed what?
Answer: Suicide doors
💡 Designer Elwood Engel originally sketched the shape for a Ford Thunderbird before Lincoln claimed it.
Q20. What exotic lightweight metal made up the entire body of GM's 1956 Firebird II show car?
Answer: Titanium
💡 The car was designed as a futuristic four-seat family cruiser, unlike its single-seat jet-styled predecessor.
Q21. The 1936 Cord 810 was the first US production car with what common feature hidden in its fenders?
Answer: Pop-up headlights
💡 Drivers raised the hidden lamps by hand-cranking a lever on the dashboard — nothing like today's automatic pop-ups.
Q22. Studebaker's sleek 1962 Avanti was designed in total secrecy at a rented house in which resort town?
Answer: Palm Springs
💡 Designer Raymond Loewy's small team delivered the finished clay model in just forty days.
Q23. What do car designers call the roof-support pillar between the front and rear side windows?
Answer: The B-pillar
💡 Some cars are marketed as 'pillarless' hardtops precisely because they hide or omit a visible B-pillar.
Q24. BMW's shape-shifting 2008 GINA concept wrapped its frame in what kind of body material?
Answer: A stretchable fabric skin
💡 That spandex-like skin could 'grow' a rear spoiler shape at higher speeds.
Q25. BMW's fabric-skinned GINA concept was built under which head of design's studio?
Answer: Chris Bangle
💡 Construction quietly began in 2001, though the finished concept wasn't shown until 2008.
Q26. In what year did Pininfarina open its own full-scale automotive wind tunnel near Turin?
Answer: 1972
💡 It was only the seventh full-scale car wind tunnel in the world at the time.
Q27. Renault's 1984 Espace pioneered which now-common single-volume shape for European cars?
Answer: The one-box minivan
💡 German buyers were slow to warm to it, with only nine orders there in its first month.
Q28. What design term names the line where a car's window glass meets its metal body?
Answer: The beltline
💡 Designers often raise this line for a sportier, more aggressive stance.
Q29. What two-letter symbol do engineers use for a car shape's aerodynamic drag coefficient?
Answer: Cd
💡 Lower numbers mean a shape slices through air more efficiently, burning less fuel at speed.
Q30. GM's wild 1959 Firebird III concept had the driver steer with what control instead of a wheel?
Answer: A joystick
💡 Firebird III also had seven fins and wings and ran on a whirlfire gas turbine engine.
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