Honda Great Race 2025, Flight of fancy

The Great Race 2025 Concept is inspired by the 1908 Great Auto Race, in which 17 men spent 169 days racing 22,000 miles from New York to Paris - earning the gruelling event the 'toughest race ever devised' title.

To celebrate the race's centenary, Honda has envisaged the otherworldly, all-terrain Great Race 2025 vehicle - which looks more like a UFO than a car. Designed to complete the original course's six-month trek in just one day, the GR2025 ticks all the 'future car' boxes in the same way Back to the Future ticked the 'future skateboard' ones. It's controlled by 'bilateral side sticks with active feedback' (so it seems steering feel will be making a return in the future) and is 'self-configuring' depending on what kind of terrain it's tearing through.

Tiny lithium-ion batteries provide enough charge to go thousands of miles across land, air or sea, and the cockpit is pressurised to avoid the problems associated with high altitude. All-in-all, the Honda GR2025 impresses because it forgets about reality in every way, focusing entirely on the business of going around the world very, very quickly and looking exactly like a dreamy 2025 fantasy should.

Mark Nichol

Tuesday October 28