General Motors' 1964 New York World's Fair Show Cars

Now for something a bit different.  New York City held a World's Fair 1964-1965 (information about it here).  As it did for the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, GM had a Futurama exhibit.  But it was not as exciting as the '39 version of the World of Tomorrow.

GM did display some concept cars that featured crisply-streamlined shapes of the sort its styling group was playing with under Bill Mitchell's direction.  I'll probably get around to treating some of them in detail in a future post.

For now, I thought I'd post some photos I took when I visited the fair in June of 1965.

Gallery

Fairgoers crossing over Grand Central Parkway with the General Motors pavilion in the background.

Inside, we find this abstract shape illustrating the long-range theme GM stylists focused on in the early 1960s when the concept cars were being designed.

GM photo of the three-wheeled Runabout -- an "urban car" 30 or 40 years ahead of its time.

Two photos of the Runabout that I took.

Firebird IV.  This was supposedly to be gas turbine powered like previous Firebirds, but actually was a "pushmobile." GM photo.

My photo of the displayed Firebrid IV.

GM-X Stiletto, another of the three non-functional concept cars.   GM publicity photo.

The Stiletto as I saw it in 1965.