Dream Cars pt. 1

As I've mentioned before, I work at a wonderful museum in Atlanta. It's one of the leading art museums in the Southeast. Our newest exhibit, which just opened on May 21st, is the much anticipated car exhibit, Dream Cars: Innovative Design, Visionary Ideas. The exhibit displays 17 concept cars produced between 1932 and today. Concept cars or "dream cars" as they were coined in the 1950s, were not cars that the public could usually purchase, but were testing grounds for automotive designers to display new innovations and design ideas.

As someone that's not your typical "car person", I was absolutely blown away by both the beauty and the innovative features of these cars for their time period. A lot of the features of some of these cars are ones that are common place today, but at the time were considered wildly futuristic. Many of these cars are European designs and it is the first time they're ever been displayed in the United States. Also many of the cars were only 1 of a few made or the only one ever made! Knowing these things made me appreciate the exhibit even more than I already did.

So now I want to share with you some of my favorite cars in the exhibit. I'll split this into 2 posts as I pretty much loved all of them haha. Enjoy!

This is the Norman Timbs Special designed in 1947. It's the first car you see in the exhibit and rightly so. It is gorgeous! Could you imagine seeing this car cruising down the highway? Mechanical engineer, Norman Timbs, created this car for his personal use. It has no doors so you step up on the side to get in.

This is the Model 40 Special Speedster designed in 1934. It was designed by Edsel Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company and son of Henry Ford. It's sleek design was based off those of European cars at the time and helped usher in that new streamed line look of cars of the 1930s. One of the innovative features of this car is that it has a starter button on the instrument panel. Who knew that as far back as 1934 that was an option?!

 

This is the Voisin C-25 Aérodyne designed in 1934. Designed by a pioneering aeronautical engineer and automobile designer, Gabriel Voisin, he introduced this car at the 1934 Paris Salon de l'Automobile car exposition. While it was a beautiful car on the outside, the highlight is definitely the interior! Check out that geometric-patterned fabric! My step-dad said this was a pimps dream car haha.

 

This is the Chrysler(Ghia) StreamlineX "Gilda" designed in 1955 by Giovanni Savonuzzi. When I first read the title of the car I immediately thought of the movie Gilda with Rita Hayworth. Low and behold the car was actually nicknamed "Gilda" after Rita's character in the movie! It was heavily inspired by jet aircraft and rocketry It definitely looks like some sort of rocket to me lol.

 

 

This is the Buick Centurion XP-301 designed in 1956 by Harley J. Earl. This might be my favorite car in the entire exhibit because the first thing I thought when I saw it was, The Jetsons! I think it was the transparent bubble top lol. Because of that top, there was no need for side mirrors or a rear view mirror on the car. However the most impressive and visionary feature of this car is that it has a rear mounted camera with a wide angled lens and a view screen embedded in the dashboard. Holy cow! This was another car design heavily influenced by aircraft.

 

This is the Bugatti Type 575 Compétition Coupé Aerolithe(French for meteor) designed in 1935. This car is actually a 2007 re-creation because unfortunately like many concept cars, the original no longer exists. It was recreated based on only a few historical photographs, factory records, and an oil painting by a Bugatti designer. The original car was unveiled at the 1935 Paris Salon de l'Automobile. Its sleek styled body was a major change to the boxy cars of the time. The color of the car is called Crème de Menthe. My, isn't she a beauty? Prior to the exhibit opening they had this car sitting in our lobby as a sort of preview of the exhibit, so I had seen it many times. But I'll never get tired of looking at it.

Hope you enjoyed this little taste of the Dream Cars exhibit. In part 2 I show some of the more modern concept cars. And I'll tell you what, the pictures don't do these cars justice! So if you're in Atlanta anytime between now and September definitely check this exhibit out!

Which was your favorite car out of the ones listed?     

MKD