In the 1978 flick The Buddy Holley Story, young Buddy’s new-found success leads him to a Cadillac dealer, where a swanky two-seat roadster fills the roll of Anonymous Rich-Man’s Trophy Car. Wait, what? There would have been no such car in a Cadillac dealership in 1959. Ah, Hollywood, always eager to muck about with our reality.
I was aware, watching the scene, that the car was actually one of the four Caddy LeMans concept cars built in 1953. What I did not know is that 1) the example shown was updated in 1959 with the quad headlights, NACA-like ducts and more swept fins that captured the zeitgeist of The Day The Music Died perfectly, and 2) the LeMans concept was easily restyled because the body was fiberglass. That’s right, a glass and resin-bodied Caddy — as unlikely in a ’59 Caddy showroom as a two-seater.
Which leads me to today’s Hoonatica inquiry: fiberglass bodied concept cars. Since one-off bodies are much more easily and efficiently produced in fiberglass than metal, and because fiberglass was a somewhat sexy material for much of the 20th century (at least from a marketing standpoint), there have been lots and lots of futuristic concept cars and manufacturers’ dream cars that had bodies of glass threads and glue. Your job is to list as many of them as the Hooniverse hivemind can come up with.
Difficulty: Easy. Super easy. Like taking broccoli from a baby.
How This Works: Read the comments first and don’t post duplicates. Bonus points for adding photos. Remember, you can simply paste in the raw image URL now, thanks to the magic of Disqus.
Image Source: The Internet Movie Cars Database…where else?
Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Fiberglass Concept Cars
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23 responses to “Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Fiberglass Concept Cars”
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Lincoln XL-500
http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/concept/1953_Lincoln_XL_500_01.jpg
Bubble canopy FTW! -
Cadillac LaSalle II
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The Chevrolet Biscayne concept, rescued from Warhoops by the great Joe Bortz:
http://www.corvettes.nl/gm_prototypes/biscayne/files/page6_3.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Chevrolet/55-Chevy-Biscayne-Concept-DV-11-AI_01.jpg -
Tony Stark thumbs his nose at Seinfeld and Leno.
http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/stark-car.png
Under the skin, it was a just a high-milage ’91 NSX. Interior unchanged.
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3f/64/26/3f64269d7521e069a605000fe8abe685.jpg -
Firebird I was fiberblass. II and III were titanium.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/FirebirdI.jpg/240px-FirebirdI.jpg -
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That a looks a like a Daimler SP250, which might qualify since it was always fiberglass
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Daimler_England%2C_Swiss_licence_registration_VD-103417_pic3.JPG/1024px-Daimler_England%2C_Swiss_licence_registration_VD-103417_pic3.JPG-
It’s a FSO Syrenka Sport which was a Polish prototype crushed for political reasons by USSR.
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Even the Police versions.
http://www.avto.info/f/pics/Novosti/Daimler_SP250_Dart_police_car_7_b.jpg
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The 1954
Cadillac El Camino concept was a driveable, two-seat show car first
shown at the 1954 GM Motorama. It had a fiberglass body and a brushed
stainless … -
Duroplast is, by all means, at least a close relative to fiberglass. Prepare for a Trabant onslaught!
P50 prototype/show car (the later P50 would look different):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/P_50.jpg
Hatching new ideas mid-run:
http://www.autosoviet.altervista.org/TRABI-HATCH2.JPG
…and trying to save what is going down in 1988:
http://www.rene.pw-serve.de/canon-galerie/kfz/ifa_fahrzeuge/images/Trabant%201.1.3%20%28Prototyp%20Bj.%201988%29.jpg -
How about the Saab Sonett? The prototypes and all production cars were fiberglass
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/SAAB94.jpg/1024px-SAAB94.jpg -
Pontiac Banshee IV http://i.ytimg.com/vi/V7uy1uU2UE0/maxresdefault.jpg
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Apparently the Ford Gyron was Fiberglass before it was destroyed in the 1962 rotunda fire.
http://www.carstyling.ru/Static/SIMG/420_0_I_MC_jpg_W/resources/concept/1961_Ford_Gyron_06.jpg?80FC333813E16F562D9AEEAB8750674F -
Pretty much every concept from the 1953/54 Motorama was fiberglass, including that famous one.
Some have been posted, some still need to be added to this list.
1952 Chevrolet Corvette C1 EX-122 Prototype
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Chevrolet/52_Chevy_Corvette_EX122_KM-08_RH-018.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z10040/Chevrolet-Corvette-C1-EX-122-Prototype.aspx1953 Cadillac Le Mans Concept
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Cadillac/53-Cadillac-LeMans-Slvr-DV-08_PBC-06.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z11269/Cadillac-Le-Mans-Concept.aspx1953 Buick Wildcat I
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Buick/53-Buick-Wildcat-I_DV-08-PBC_0001.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z1755/Buick-Wildcat-I.aspx1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Motorama
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Pontiac/54_Pontiac-Bonneville-Spcl-DV-10-MB_05.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z11138/Pontiac-Bonneville-Special-Motorama.aspx1954 Oldsmobile F-88 Concept
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Oldsmobile/1954_olds_f88_cncpt_manu-54_01.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z11139/Oldsmobile-F-88-Concept.aspx1954 GMC XP-21 Firebird I
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/GMC/54_Firebird_I_Exp-DV-10-GM_007.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z8697/GMC-XP-21-Firebird-I.aspx1954 Buick Wildcat II
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Buick/54-Buick_Wildcat-II_DV-08_PBC_07.jpg
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z1756/Buick-Wildcat-II.aspx -
https://history.gmheritagecenter.com/wiki/uploads/7/70/C954-0001.jpg
The CERV program comes to mind. -
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Which led to the all steel Fiat X1/9 which kept some of the styling cues.
http://roa.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/14/47/1280×720/546b477835a86_-_fiatx19-72921510.jpg
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From this side of the world the Holden Torana GTRX or the Holden Hurricane.
http://lukehimself.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IMG_20150614_155156.jpg
http://www.canberratoranaclub.com/images/gtrx/Holden_GTR-X_Concept_1970_011.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8423/7746423490_3cd9faec6c_b.jpg
http://www.switchimage.org/phlog/Images_110801/Phlog_Holden_Hurricane_1969-26.jpg
http://www.luxuryautodirect.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/1969-Holden-Hurricane-Concept-11.jpg
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