Driverless racing cars are only recently becoming a thing with initiatives like Roborace, but what if autonomous tech had established itself 50 years ago?

That’s what automotive designer John Frye has imagined with these epic alternate-universe designs, taking famous F1 cars from the 1960s and 70s and turning them into driverless racing cars. To make them even cooler, they’ve also been presented as a series of retro model kits.

Frye says they’re not to be taken too seriously as there’s a fantasy element to them as well, with most aero devices being removed and the cars given a definite ‘hot-rod’ look.

One neat touch is the ‘sensor pod’ being positioned roughly where the drivers would be, as are all the cars being given the kind of names you’d expect to see from an unlicensed F1 game.

Although the sci-fi designs look seriously different from actual F1 cars, it’s easy to see the influences from the cars they’re based on – like the massive airbox from the Ferrari 312T, the sloped sidepods from the Brabham BT44, and obviously the six wheels of the Tyrrell P34.

Frye (who works as a designer at Honda when he’s not busy making awesome stuff like this) has said that he’s in the process of getting the whole idea trademarked and that we could well be seeing these as actual models at some point in the future. Best get stocking up on paint and modelling glue now, then!

You can check out more of John’s work here.