History Concept Cars-what happened to them?

I heard most were destroyed after they were exploited on the show circuits. True or bullshit?

 

I know GM has some of theirs hidden away in a secret wing in one of their design buildings. I think most of them were destroyed though.

 

http://bortzautocollection.com/

 

Some of them have ended up in private collections and a lot of them end up in museums owned by the manufacturers. I know that Chrysler has some in its Corporate museum.

 

I wish I could land one of those Chevy wagon concepts that looked like a '54 Corvette. I think someone actually makes a copy that is pretty close.

 

@Nads drives his.

 

Some pop up on occasion, the Chrysler Plainsman wagon showed up on ebay a few years ago, I haven't heard much about it since.

 

Well, there ya go. Love the 60 Pontiac. THX

 

I saw that at Auctions America last Summer here in Burbank. It was pretty rough but way cool to see. I was not around when it sold tho

 

They were supposed to be destroyed, but the manufacturers did keep some. Some were rescued from the junkyard crusher, and some were even cut up, to be rediscovered many years later, and re-assembled/restored. Warhoops yard in Michigan had a few in pieces that were rescued.

 

Those were just cool. There actually was a thread a couple of years back that had a lot of concept cars and the little wagon was one of them.

Groucho good thread these threads always bring out some things that most of us have never seen and then we wish we had the talent to build one.

So someone answer me this I know that concept cars were a big deal in the '50s and '60s but other then Edsel Ford's roadster did they do concepts way back when?

 

Beaner, I don't think they were nearly as prevalent prior to the '50's and up.
The Buick Y-Job of 1938 is a prominent concept that comes to mind.

 

Now that's a lot of Buick right there. Beautiful car.

here is a pic of the Nomad concept the turn table somewhere. I wonder what that car in the back ground is?

 

A slightly OT answer. EVERY car and truck you have ever seen in a TV commercial has ended up in the crusher. They all look cool on the outside but all of them are prototypes and none of them have an interior worthy of being filmed. The next time you see a TV commercial with a dozen Ford or Chevy's being driven in a high-budget spectacular 30-second spot just remember every car your looking at was sent to the crusher immediately after the final edit of the commercial was approved.

 

Plowboy?

 

I don't think that plowboy ever wished he had the talent to build a concept he just never knew that he couldn't do it. You know what they say ignorance is bliss. If not knowing you can't do something is ignorance we could all stand a little bit of bliss.

 

I'll be in the shop, washing my eyes out with acetone....

 

Falcongeorge, I know; it's a love it or hate it thing. I think it's cool but I have no taste whatsoever.

Beaner, that is the Oldsmobile Cutlass Concept of 1954!

 

Cool thanks

I think George and I almost fall into the same boat, we are more performance oriented then we are custom guys. so a lot of the concept cars may seem a little over the top for guys like us.

 

well, I am a pretty hard-core performance guy, but I can at least appreciate a well done custom from a distance, and I think Ray Goularts Olds is truly a thing of beauty...But that Chrysler...MOTHER OF GAWD!! Im sure exposing pregnant women to that thing could cause birth defects...

 

Great thread! love those cars.

 

I knew of a place in Brownstown Twp MI that used to get some of the AMC prototype cars less drivetrains or other special features back in the late 70's. I also knew of a guy who worked at one of the big three where they dismantled the test vehicles and scrapped them. They were required to destroy all the usable parts. Stuff like rally wheels they would just drill a hole in, then the guys would take them home weld up the hole and use them. Management got wind of it and made sure the procedure was changed to something more extensive.

 

ahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahhahahhah. Fucker. Look at this mess you made me make

 

Oldsmovettillac

 

Yeah, I knew a guy worked hi up @ GM in the 60's-80's. He told stories on how they didn't want the workers taking motors home after tests were performed so they'd take em out in the parking lot, remove the intake manifold and drop a heavy object from a fork lift to crush the lifter valley

 

My dad worked at a structural steel company in the 80's, they had a scrap business across the street. They won the bid for a Mitsubishi plant's scrap, all the assembly line test vehicles went there, they hires an outside security company to monitor the crusher, each car that came off the hauler was catalog'd and crushed, didn't even hit the dirt.
Weird stuff like semi's full of new alum rims, they set up concrete barriers, the semi would dump into the barriers and the wrecking ball would drop until all the rims were smashed, same security company each time.
He said the structural steel employees would all go check it out when those trucks came, just to see what lengths they went to.

 

Don't usually read car and driver, unless one of the guys at work brings in old issues, but there's a good article in the May 2013 issue about Warhoops, and the La Salle sedan and roadster, the Biscayne, and the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Town Car that ended up there, and what happened to them. Bortz has done a lot to preserve this history.

 

In Flint we have the Buick Gallery Museum that opens every once and a while to the public. There are a few concepts in there.....

 

The Plainsman was a cool concept car. Its proportions are supposed to elicit the sight of a stagecoach. It was designed by a guy that came to Chrysler from the Ford styling department, hence the Ford concept flavor. And it's significant because it's a Chrysler-Ghia endeavor.

The poor car has led a hard life. And it's kind of a hot rod, since at some point an owner added a 440.

For the record, I don't think it's ugly.

 

Here is a link with more concept car info: http://www.chuckstoyland.com/potpourri/conceptcars/index.html