General Motors Futurliner |
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Wikipedia: GM Futurliner
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's GM Futurliner page on 21 September 2019, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The GM Futurliners were a group of custom vehicles, styled in the 1940s by Harley Earl for General Motors, and integral to the company's Parade of Progress—a North American traveling exhibition promoting future cars and technologies. Having earlier used eight custom Streamliners from 1936 to 1940, GM sponsored the Parade of Progress and the Futurliners from 1940 to 1941 and again from 1953 to 1956.
At 33 feet long, 8 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and weighing more than 12 tons, each Futurliner featured heavily stylized art deco, streamlined bodywork, deep red side and white roof paint, large articulated chrome side panels, a military-grade 302 cubic inch GMC straight-six gasoline engine and automatic transmission, whitewall tires and a prominent, high-mounted, centrally located driver command position with a panoramic windshield.
Of the twelve original Futurliners, one was destroyed in a 1956 accident, and nine survive as of 2007.
In 2014, Futurliner #10 was nominated for inclusion in the National Historic Vehicle Register.
| Date | Article | Author/Source |
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| 17 May 2016 | Legendary 1939 Futurliner to Headline Auction Block at Hot August Nights | Motorsport Auction Group |