Hooniverse Asks: ‘50s Edition- What Car Company Had The Best 1950s Concept Car?

By Robert Emslie Mar 9, 2015

1958-chrysler-diablo1
In the 1950s America was on the move. Suburban sprawl, an expanding highway system, and fast food franchises springing up across the nation fed the wanderlust of the burgeoning middle class. Domestic auto makers fought tooth and nail to fill driveways, while at the same time foreign makes sought to gain a foothold in the lucrative American market.
So competitive was the auto market that car makers sought an edge not just on the sales floor but on the car show circuit as well. No other era of the automotive age has seen more, or more wild, show cars than did the nineteen fifties.
This week we’re feting the fifties in our morning question of the day, and today we want your opinion on which concept car from the decade was the most amazing. It might have been the most beautiful, the most prescient, or just the most audacious. Whatever the reason, which car company do you think had the best concept of the fifties, and what was that concept?
Image: Luxuo

34 thoughts on “Hooniverse Asks: ‘50s Edition- What Car Company Had The Best 1950s Concept Car?”
      1. An interview from the time:
        PBJ: Your designs have massive overhangs, what is inspiring this look?
        Ford Designer: Jets have massive overhangs from their landing gear, everyone likes how they look.
        PBJ: Yes but jets don’t have to corner on a track.
        FD: And?
        Also it wasn’t just overhangs that were greatly exaggerated Lincoln’s Indianapolis Concept went for the “I have a longer hood than you” treatment.
        http://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2013/09/RM-Art-of-the-Automobile_1955-Lincoln-Exclusive-Study_Michael-Furman-c-2013-Courtesy-of-RM-Auctions_6.jpg

    1. Except that the X-2000 didn’t exist as functional, full-sized car until Andy Saunders built it 1994.
      The concept “car” of 1958 was only a 3/8 scale model that was Alex Tremulis’s spit-ball prediction of what cars would look like in the year 2000.

  1. I’ve got a couple. One, the Alfa Romeo SuperFlow, because transparent fenders are cool I don’t care who you are.
    http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studio/large/1956_Pininfarina_Alfa-Romeo_Superflow_01.jpg
    The other is the Cadillac Coupe from Ghia. It’s not over the top like a lot of ’50s concepts, but it’s gorgeous. I’ve loved it ever since I saw a photo of it for the first time back as a little kid.
    http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studios/1953_Ghia_Cadillac_Coupe_17.jpg

    1. I learned about this car from you, and ever since it’s been one of my favorite daydreams. Merci, amigo.

    2. I see your Renault and raise you a Ghia, a Selene to be exact. I plan on recreating the interior in my 1977 Chevy Van. (I actually don’t own one, but if I did, I would).

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