Amazing concept story

[balthazar]

I stuck this in with Cadillac, tho I tend to shy away from such a 'dismissive' linking, and because I think this is significant enough to keep it public (the Lounge was my 2nd choice).

Here are some new vids focusing on the rescued 1955 LaSalle II roadster Motorama show car, internally known as XP-34.

This car, tho historically fell thru the cracks and garnered little attention from enthusiasts, was a technological tour de force.

One of the most amazing things learnt here is the sheer towering mastery General Motors was regularly exercising in the 1950s, one of it's greatest decades of all time.

Usually the term "pushmobile" is an automatic excuse to wave off a car as 'smoke & mirrors', a hastily spit-shined rock made to look pretty.

These vids show that not only was the engineering extensive & unique, but very futuristic & predictive. Tho this car lack a few components

that would have made it drivable (lack of time perhaps??), it certainly appears that being functional was intended at least somehwere along the process.

Some background pics:

Rescued circa 1988, and finally having it's turn come up for restoration, the owner Joe Bortz is going about enabling a small electric motor to drive the car, leaving the FI DOHC AL V-6 underhood for posterity & historical record. While I have some minor reservations about going this route, I think I can get behind it. But check out the detailing & engineering involved in a turntable car that never moved under it's own power. Wow, did GM ever kno how to do it right then :

Part I ~

Part II ~

Brakes pre-date the Pontiac 8-lug concept (patented in 1959, produced for over-the-counter availability in late '60, RPO for '61).

I'll assume the chains hanging down fore & aft were for securing the LaS II during transport by GM.

Amazing close-up look at a true on-off show car. I for one am indescribably jealous.

Enjoy!

Edited November 7, 2010 by balthazar

[A Horse With No Name]

awesome!

[Camino LS6]

Thanks for posting this!

[ocnblu]

Very cool. Through these concept car hidden treasures, "Warhoops" has taken on meaning like Shangri-La, or Eldorado.

[Intrepidation]

Not really my thing, but nice to see a concept car rescued and restored.

[A Horse With No Name]

Not really my thing, but nice to see a concept car rescued and restored.

I kind of like posting here for that very reason...you post Intrepid and Mopar stuff, balthy posts older stuff, everyone here puts in some good content. I kind of like to feel like I am learning new things when I come here.

And that's what I like about this concept...it is the kind of car that can make you think.

[balthazar]

The brake system engineering is so off-the-wall for a pusher car- that's the really cool thing I learned. The thinking there, as far as I know, is very unique & interesting, even tho I'm not sure exactly how well it wold work.

The descendant Pontiac 8-lug system worked GREAT, but was notably different.

[Camino LS6]

This thread sent me on a Warhoops search that had me following all sorts of tangential links for hours.

Here is a gem of an album of vintage GM promo shots and more.

http://public.fotki.com/gsteinma/old_transparancies/

[balthazar]

Cool album- nice '66 Elky at 'work'!

Also liked the '60 Pontiac contemplating squEEEzing back into the garage.

[Camino LS6]

Loved both of those pics.

[ocnblu]

Wow, I just went through all 65 photos. Great album. Thanks Camino.

[A Horse With No Name]

Loved the 58....

This looks like a 55 Del Ray...I was going to do my 55 post in the aqua and white two tone Del ray shown here. Sold that car to my old Friend G.E. Miller, who lives in Orlando. He has since decided to repaint it in this aqua/white scheme and do a del ray clone out of it.

There's a white Panel truck like these sitting down on Oak Street, and sometime on Franklin, in Olde Towne East, a historical neighborhood here in Columbus. Cool vintage pic!

I actually am starting to really like the 1960 Pontiac design...even though I know a lot of you guys don't. That ragtop 1960 that shows up to local car shows here in Grove City is the same color as this moredoor hard top.

The sculpted sides on this car are just perfect....

However, this particular photograph doesn't do much for the front end of the car, which is really fantastic in person.

Cars like this are part of how I found the GM midsize religion, and why I am still a convert to it thirty five years later....

A 66 like this passed me the other day when I was driving through Columbus in my Miata...only the one that passed me was black. Still had the dog dish caps and hadn't been built into an SS clone, slightly ratty but seemed to have the original paint and wasn't rusted or beaten to death...was a cool car/truck!

Still ahve a serious weakness for these wagons with the Vista Roof!

[balthazar]

'stang- I believe photographic has reflected some light into the grille cavities on the '62 GP, highlighting them in a different way than normally viewed. Kinda misleads on the contours a bit.

Still such a beautiful car...

Agreed on the early GM compacts- some of them are quite appealing... even tho obviously 'de-engineered' from the full-size lines.

[A Horse With No Name]

Just bring me a 70 Olds Cutty wagon with a 455 and a vista roof....and all will be good.

One of my fav. Pontiacs was a 65 LeMans wagon someone built into a flawless GTO clone a few years back...Loved that car!

The GTO wagon I fell in love with was a gold 4 speed wagon, and more of a show car...but this is still way too cool!

[Camino LS6]

I really do love phantoms - clones not so much.

That wagon is defintely in the phantom category.

[A Horse With No Name]

I really do love phantoms - clones not so much.

That wagon is defintely in the phantom category.

Off topic, but I do love wagons, esp. phantoms.

65 Ford as a phantom lacks the grace of the GTO....but interesting....

...and while we are talking concepts.....

Pontiac as concept two door wagon...obviously not an original Pontiac concept, but still cool....

I've always liked this Mustang concept, but I'd rather have the GTO wagon, esp that aqua blue one!

[SAmadei]

I actually am starting to really like the 1960 Pontiac design...even though I know a lot of you guys don't. That ragtop 1960 that shows up to local car shows here in Grove City is the same color as this moredoor hard top.

I don't think many here dislike the 1960 Pontiacs... except for me. I just don't like it.

That color in the photo looks really wrong. There was no fuchsia available in 1960 to the best of my knowledge... only Coronado Red... which is a darker red, than a bright red. I'm not sure what happened to the photo... it should look more like this:

[A Horse With No Name]

For Camino-a Mustang phantom sedan delivery!

Too bad it's too cold to go surfing in Philly in November...

I don't think many here dislike the 1960 Pontiacs... except for me. I just don't like it.

That color in the photo looks really wrong. There was no fuchsia available in 1960 to the best of my knowledge... only Coronado Red... which is a darker red, than a bright red. I'm not sure what happened to the photo... it should look more like this:

This is like the car at the local car show...I think the dyes in the Kodachrome must have shifted in the picture of the moredoor....

[SAmadei]

65 Ford as a phantom lacks the grace of the GTO....but interesting....

Pontiac as concept two door wagon...obviously not an original Pontiac concept, but still cool....

When they do this, I wish they would make everything from the B-pillar back one piece of glass. Sure, you can roll that rear window down, but I think it looks much cleaner without it.

[A Horse With No Name]

When they do this, I wish they would make everything from the B-pillar back one piece of glass. Sure, you can roll that rear window down, but I think it looks much cleaner without it.

I would agree.....

[A Horse With No Name]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclegal/2694461484/

Another neat link to a 1965 GTO wagon

[A Horse With No Name]

Iris mist is still the number 1 GTO color for sixty five methinks...this on a wagon phantom...would be awesome....

Something about the stance and lines of the 65 just makes it the best of the GTO/LeMans line up....

[Camino LS6]

That '65 Chevelle is amazing...

[A Horse With No Name]

Not a GTO yet...but it has a wicked 455

More pure GTO porn..../Pontiac Porn....

Now a wagon done up like this, with the nose in the air.....

Would also be nice to have one built very conservative like this post car....

And yes, that Chevelle is amazing!

More pure Pontiac tri power porn....

I still think the more conservative lines of the 64 would do awesome on a phantom wagon...

[Camino LS6]

This is one orgasmic thread...

[A Horse With No Name]

The boxy front end just seems to lend itself to a wagon conversion, or a sedan delivery conversion....

Cool as a Tempest, but just begging to be a GTO...

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3092222/1964-pontiac-tempest-long-island-city-ny-us?p=2

[A Horse With No Name]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnhotrods/4230651388/in/set-72157623105805290/

Links to 64 GTO two door wagon under construction

1950s Pontiac for some more phantom inspiration

Now just picture the 64 as a clean phantom GTO like the 66...and you get the idea!

Another photograph of that Fontaine blue wagon, 65,. that I posted from earlier....

...and once in awhile, right from the factory, GM built their own incredibly cool Phantom....

[Camino LS6]

Yes, in painfully low numbers...

[A Horse With No Name]

[ocnblu]

Veered totally off-topic but decidedly wicked cool. I am always up for pictures of Pontiacs. And... I love the look of the '60 Pontiac... absolutely sanitary after the busy '59.

[A Horse With No Name]

Veered totally off-topic but decidedly wicked cool. I am always up for pictures of Pontiacs. And... I love the look of the '60 Pontiac... absolutely sanitary after the busy '59.

Both are just different. People criticize Alfred Sloan because of his planned obsolescence, but it unleashed one whale of human creativity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Sloan

[GMTruckGuy74]

There's a white Panel truck like these sitting down on Oak Street, and sometime on Franklin, in Olde Towne East, a historical neighborhood here in Columbus. Cool vintage pic!

Is it just sitting, needing a resto? For sale? I LOVE the GM panel trucks of the mid-'50s, even Chevies. I'd love to own a GMC or Chevy panel truck one day.

[A Horse With No Name]

Just sitting...I drive by a fairly decent 1960 GMC panel, if I ever get a chance I'll make a few inquires for you...

[GMTruckGuy74]

Just sitting...I drive by a fairly decent 1960 GMC panel, if I ever get a chance I'll make a few inquires for you...

Sure, thanks!

Even pics of them both would be great, if you can make it happen (at your convenience though!!)

[GMTruckGuy74]

While I like that design/styling, I still prefer the '55-'59 years more: