Tesla has done something for car manufacturing that no other brand has done in a very long time. And that's shaking things up. From its first mainstream electric car with the Model S in 2012 to being the best-selling EV in several countries, Tesla's come a long way. It's been able to do that by constantly pushing the boundaries through innovations in design, manufacturing processes, retail, and more. Tesla even thought it could reinvent the (steering) wheel by making the yoke steering the only option on the new Model S before quietly rolling it back for recent cars.

But one of America's oldest car brands, one that isn't even around anymore, did beat Tesla to the punchline. Among the many brands that were under the General Motors umbrella, Oldsmobile was one that built plenty of concept cars. Some of which possibly could have saved the American car company. This particular one, however, has something different from the rest. And "different" is putting it lightly.

The Oldsmobile Incas' interior is outrageous, to say the least. Automakers nowadays like to implement different "features" in cars to have them stand out from the crowd. But sometimes, these features turn out to be gimmicks. But is the Incas' interior a gimmick, or is it, in fact, practical - an innovation of some sort? Is Oldsmobile actually the Tesla of the '80s?

Updated June 2023: We've updated this article with lesser-known facts on the wild innovations that Oldsmobile pulled out of its hat in designing the 1986 Incas Concept's interior to be outrageous and strange, something that we associate today's Tesla cars with.

Related: What Everyone Has Forgotten About Oldsmobile And Its Cars

The Oldsmobile Incas Concept Interior Was Out Of This World

Oldsmobile Incas Concept Interior view
Italdesign

Car manufacturers like to "wow" us with different things they tend to do with a car's interior, such as brilliant neon lights with large screens mounted on the dash or going as far as having a headliner finished with a million stitches.

The Incas, for some reason, had a combination of digital and analog gauges. Somehow, they decided to add analog speedometers and tachometers on top of the pre-existing digital ones, which seem to not be working... since the car is stationary for the photos, but it still displays 62km/h (38 mph). The gauges are all set up directly in the driver's field of sight - laid out like an airplane's cockpit. Everything that a conventional car gauge would display to a driver is displayed in this glass cockpit.

Apart from the interesting design of the dashboard, the Incas' floor seems to be lined with a very cozy-looking floor liner that resembles a shag carpet. This isn't the wildest thing about the car, though, since, let's not forget - this was the mid-1980s. It's pretty evident the Incas' interior is pretty outrageous. And the wildest part of the Incas Concept interior is clearly the redesigned steering wheel.

The Oldsmobile Incas Concept Steering Was Inspired By Video Games

Oldsmobile Incas Concept 6 Interior
via: General Motors

Does anyone dare go as far as the Oldsmobile Incas? Sure, we know the Tesla Model S Plaid offers a rectangular steering wheel which they call a "yoke". But even that has only a handful of buttons for the essentials.

However, the Oldsmobile Incas' interior goes way beyond that. Oldsmobile redesigned the steering wheel in a way cooler way, much before Tesla. The Incas' steering wheel looked a lot like a gaming joystick. The 80s was a time of video game boom. The next generation was growing up with video games, and Oldsmobile wanted to woo them. The sophisticated Incas Concept's "joystick" was their way of doing it.

This is also exactly what inspired Italdesign to go bold with the interior design. Every single dial, button, switch, and lever from anywhere else on the dashboard is now a button on the steering wheel, excluding the turn signal. The turn signal is the only function of the car that isn't located directly on the steering wheel. The result of all this was a car interior design that looked like a futuristic fighter jet.

The Incas Concept's steering wheel was not just for show, as Oldsmobile and Italdesign also made clever engineering modifications to replace the traditional steering. The Incas' joystick had a very narrow lock-to-lock steering angle of just 90 degrees. This is intended to ease the transition from a "traditional" steering to one with half of it missing!

Related: This Oldsmobile Rocket Restomod Concept Breathes New Life Into An Underrated Hero

The Oldsmobile Incas Concept Exterior Design Was Very Futuristic

Oldsmobile Incas Top Doors Closed
via: General Motors

The Oldsmobile Incas' body was designed by Italdesign, which has a knack for designing cars that are fit to star in a comic book. Their designs are unique and somewhat coveted. The Incas was designed as a collaboration between Italdesign and Oldsmobile.

There is little that is known about the details of the Incas beyond what the eye can see. There isn't much information about the car except the fact that the car had a lightweight, aerodynamic body with its sleek design and hidden headlamps. The Incas featured gull-wing style doors, which ended up giving the car an even more futuristic look, given its massive windshield that stretched as far up as the doors.

But the Incas Concept doesn't go as fast or futuristic as it looks. The car is said to have had Oldsmobile's turbocharged quad-turbo, four-cylinder engine, which pushed out 230 horsepower. Yes, you heard that right. Quad turbos like that of a Bugatti Veyron. But the hp rating for a quad-turbocharged car is laughable, to say the least. But, well, it was a concept, and so it barely mattered. This, paired with the lightweight body, meant that if the Incas had seen the light of day - it would have been a very fast car. But unfortunately for us, it did not.

Why The Oldsmobile Incas Never Made It To Production?

Oldsmobile Incas Doors Front
via: General Motors

The Oldsmobile Incas, just like plenty of other wild concept cars, never made it to production. The dream was finally killed off when Oldsmobile was out of business by 2004. It left a great legacy in automotive history and made its fair share of impact on the industry.

No one really ever knows if General Motors will ever revive the Oldsmobile brand, let alone if we ever get to see an Incas in our lifetimes. But the legend lives on. As manufacturers like Tesla feature a yoke instead of a traditional steering wheel - the Incas did it first.

Not only the steering wheel from the Incas but, as time passes, car manufacturers and enthusiasts only continue to take inspiration from Oldsmobile and the crazy concepts that were put out. Here's to hoping that more manufacturers will take inspiration from Oldsmobile and their concepts.

Bad business moves aside, Oldsmobile made innovative and record-breaking cars. Not only that, Oldsmobile made some of the nicest-looking muscle cars ever built. In a world full of Fords and Dodges, if one can think of the signature American muscle car - it's an Olds.

Hate it or love it, gimmick or not. Seeing cars from today's day and age shows that cars like the Incas were way ahead of their time. This Oldsmobile will always be the "one that got away".