Features HAMB ERA PROTOTYPES

The Indianapolis Art Museum had a display called Dream Cars a few years back. I believe it was during the 100th running of the Indy 500. When this thread popped up last week it reminded me of a few pictures I had taken. I thought they might fit here.

 

Cool, I think I have posted more shots of that in here somewhere.

 

Here's a few more from the IMA Dream Cars exhibition in 2015. I'm it sorry it takes me awhile to get these downsized then posted. I don't consider myself computer literate, more like computer functional.

 

More from the IMA. The Thunderbolt hide away headlights always remind me of the 1942 Desoto hide away headlights. I have to look twice to see if the Thunderbolt is coming or going.

 

Heres a couple of shots of a '42 DeSoto, for those who might not be familiar with that particular model.

 

This one is little different, I had never heard of a Tasco before.

 

I forgot, thank-you 1959 for 1942 Desoto pictures. That is one beautiful car. I have a '41 Desoto but it is nothing near that condition.

 

More pictures from the IMA Dream Car display. Not real sure this fits as a prototype but definitely HAMB friendly.

 

Here's some sketches they had display plus a couple photos of the Cadillac Cyclone

 

A 1964 Banshee Coupe concept for sale at a Kia Napoli in Milford, Conn.

Disclaimer: NOT my car or dealership



To be clear, the car in question is a first-generation Banshee. Despite never making production, the nameplate had four generations, with concepts shown in 1964, 1968, 1974, and 1988. Two prototypes of the "first-gen" Banshee were built: a silver coupe with a straight-six and a white convertible with a V-8. That makes this the first Banshee, the only first-generation coupe, and the start of a long internal struggle at GM.


The Banshee, to GM executives, was going to be too fast. With its lightweight construction and potent engine options, it'd hold its own against the Corvette. And inside GM, where brand hierarchy is king, nothing matches the Corvette. Like many projects since, the Banshee suffered so the Corvette could prosper.

It's a a car that symbolized the internal power struggles and decision making at GM, a historic one-off. It's also priced as such, with Napoli Kia asking $750,000. It only shows 1498 miles, reportedly only driving to shows.

 

1954 Buick Wildcat II

 

1953 Buick Wildcat. Sure different than the 54 ^^^^^^

 

Not to hijack thread, but on these "concept cars, Is most of the work Metal, fiberglass or combination of both.

 

Definitely depended on the manufacturer's specific needs in the moment (and the suitability of the forms to a given material).

 

This was the concept for the 1st gen Firebird/Camaro. Very cool and not the first concept to get axed or protect the Corvette.
The 62 Corvair Monza GT was put on hold due to its potential ability to compete with Corvette.

 

Ford Nucleon
Why, yes, everybody in the future will be driving nuclear-powered cars. Or... maybe not. The Nucleon was more of an exercise than anything with serious intent -- Ford's idea was to show what vehicles might look like once nuclear reactors were small enough for personal use. This was 1958.

 

Bill Mitchells 63 Silver Arrow

 

This is the pair of Avanti-influenced Studebaker sedan prototypes from the early sixties. They were never intended to replace the Avanti 2+2 coupe but, rather, to replace the aging Lark styling (the bones of which dated back to the 1953 model year).

Note that they each bear 2-door styling on one side and 4-door styling on the other.

They have survived (miraculously) and are now a part of the Studebaker National Museum collection in South Bend, Indiana.

Here's an article about the cars from Hemmings:
https://www.hemmings.com/users/169996/story/698.html

 

I can see why they never made it into production.

 

The position of the Corvette in GM's marque system was always a problem, and its effects might have been more serious than people may think.

I'm no friend of the corporate motor industry establishment, so I'm a bit like the Irishman under the guillotine (Wait! I see where your problem is!) in attempting this analysis. I am convinced that GM misunderstood their own marque system from the start, and efforts to understand it better after c.1960 were a bit too little, too late.

Alfred P. Sloan conceived the marque system as a sort of ladder:

Cadillac
|
Buick
|
Oldsmobile
|
Pontiac
|
Chevrolet​

The idea was that the satisfied Chevrolet buyer would come back after a few years and buy a Pontiac (or Oakland, as it was originally conceived) and it seemed sound enough on the face of it. The problem was that while you can attach Cadillac to the idea on cost-no-object excellence, and Chevrolet to the idea of frugality, toughness, and versatility, you can't really attach Oldsmobile to an idea like "better than a Pontiac but not quite as good as a Buick." As a marque identity it doesn't work: you end up epitomizing mediocrity unless you introduce a different conceptual hook, and as soon as that happens you're away from a ladder.

By 1960 it was beginning to look like this:

Cadillac
|
. . . Pontiac — Buick — Oldsmobile
|
Chevrolet​

Here the horizontal axis runs from passionate/sporty to rational/scientific. There were signs of it since the end of WWII, e.g. in the way new innovations would appear "experimentally" a year early in Oldsmobiles. This could have worked very well had GM not been so tentative and wishy-washy about it. As it was, the divisions lacked clear mandates and by 1990, all of them were making Buicks. A clearer idea of what the marques were about would have been:
Cadillac: . .. . . v. Rolls-Royce, senior Mercedes-Benz, Daimler, Imperial, Lincoln;
Buick: . . . .. . . v. Volvo, Peugeot, junior Mercedes-Benz, Wolseley, Humber, Rover, Mercury;
Oldsmobile: .. v. Citroën, NSU, Saab, Lancia;
Pontiac: . . . . . v. Alfa-Romeo, BMW, Porsche, Jaguar, MG, Riley;
Chevrolet: . . . v. Ford, Volkswagen, Austin, Morris, Hillman, Fiat, Plymouth, Checker.

It should be obvious that the Corvette was in the wrong place in the system from the start. It should have been a Pontiac in 1953: or it should have remained a six-cylinder "runabout" after 1955 and have been allowed to be overshadowed by a more serious new Pontiac sports car with the new 287 in that year. If Pontiac's stodgy past image at the time were too much for that, a more radical approach would have been to get Chevrolet and Pontiac to swap places, and somehow to meld Pontiac and GMC as the practical, commercial-friendly price-leader marque. (Imagine if every Pontiac model had had a commercial variant, be it a delivery, a pickup, or both, with Pontiac styling but GMC badges?)

The problem of course was that GM's internal politics were such that the divisions were all competing against one another for Buick's spot, instead of being bound to specific respective mandates. Had the latter been the case, Pontiac and Oldsmobile might have survived, and we might have seen some very interesting cars along the way.

 

I think this fits here. 1963 Falcon Cayuse

 

1958 Packard Hawk convert prototype

 

If only they went ahead with this. Imagine stumbling upon one of these

 

Buick Riviera XP 715 Concept, 1960.

 

Fastback Thunderbird

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1956 Buick Centurion II

 

Packard Saga Concept Car (1955)

 

1953 Cadillac Le Mans concept