There has been no shortage of epic car-related activities over the past few weeks, and hot on the heels of Bonneville we just had the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, Pebble Beach in Monterey, and a certain event called the HAMB Drags in Joplin, all... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Bizarre and interesting - yes Good and balanced design - no Another example of "not everything that was built back in the day was beautiful".
....but 'concept cars' commissioned by the Big Three and built by Italian studios were testbed/design exercises to judge the public reaction at the annual 'Motorama-type' shows. The separate elements (i.e. quad headlights) often made their way into the styling divisions for different models or product lines a few years later like the 1957 Lincoln, for example....
I sure wouldn't mind having '55 Lincoln Capri hardtop in that color. But this car as it stands is indeed "bizarre and interesting," at the very least, and has way too many ideas fighting with each other. May also be proof that all the ugly customs didn't come from the eastern United States! Wonder what it'd look like with the wheel openings radiused and minus the crazy exhaust outlets and rear fender intakes? And maybe a real grill tunneled into that front end bulge?
I kind of love the intent of seeing the future of cars ... way ahead of time. Beautiful to me, though.
Reminds me of one of the "unfortunate" girls I went to high school with. She wore thick glasses and had quite an overbite.
I received an email yesterday with a heap of old car photos and one of them was this beauty. Great looking car. Thanks for posting.
Boano & Ellena was a so-so carrozzina by any standards.........The Lincoln above had it not been orange in hue would probably have die or disappeared long ago.........It is unattractive to say the least........
I love all the weird stuff. Just picture some 50's Starlett, like Jane Mansfield, sliding out onto the red carpet, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. God Bless Henry II for bringing it back into the fold. Is this a static display concept, or runs and drives??? Would be interesting to see in a different color. Black?? JT
Certainly get all the unbalanced, goofy-looking comments. But when the dust has settled, I find myself on this side of the equation with Fopelaez. Once again, I love the shit you dig up Jay.
I thought if I chimed in as many have have that I'd be the only one... guess not. Cool piece of history but +1 for not a fan.
We had a girl like that in my high school class. After graduation she got braces (for a while), contacts, store bought boobs and blond hair and eventually a millionaire. She had potential. I see no hope in that concept car. Buck ass ugly is ugly forever.
Love that thing. If I owned it the only thing I would change would be to make the side exit exhausts functional.
For what it was supposed to be, kool. As the real thing, it would have died in the showroom. However, as mentioned, some ideas made their way into the real thing. The whole "concept" of a "concept car", no? I wouldn't kick it out of my garage.
Just another thought... Seeing this '55 Boano concept, I'm really glad FoMoCo went in a different direction with the Continental Mk-II in '56!
I love the outlandish designs of the 50's and the imagination that went into them all. This is a wild looking car to say the least. Definitely a head turner wherever you go! I would love to have it!
As the French would say - normally reserved for women - 'jolie laide' - translates to 'ugly beautiful'. To me the front end has a Kaiser Manhattan thing going on with the protruding headlamps. Thanks for posting (I think) Jay....
This is a One of One car. I appreciate the thought of someone that has a vision and has the ability to do things like this. You will not make everyone in life happy with YOUR decisions. This car was built because of a visionary. I for one am thankful. Did it sell on the lawn??? Who cares. As long as it survives for generations to come and doesn't stay in hiding so people can enjoy it.
It's a one-off concept car. A design excersize. Probobly sitting on a plainjane '54 ford chassis. Its purpose was to get people talking about FORD designs. And it is STILL working!