The 1955 General Motors
Motorama featured two concept cars that strike me as being variations on the same basic body concept -- a body that might well have been considered for future production. Otherwise, what was the point of this exercise when distinctly different styling exercises exploring a wider variety of ideas could have been presented.
As it happened, the basic design shared by the two concept cars never entered production, though a few features did.
One concept car was the Pontiac Strato-Star (some background information
here). The other was the Oldsmobile 88 Delta that I wrote about
here.
I cannot prove my hypothesis, given available information on the Internet and in my reference library, so the best I can do is offer evidence via the GM-sourced images below.
Gallery
Pontiac Strato-Star.
Oldsmobile 88 Delta.
Showing the car with the passenger door closed.
Features to compare are: (1) front wheel opening; (2) fender lines and beltlines; (3) door cutlines; (4) rear end basic shaping.
The 88 Delta's passenger compartment greenhouse seems lower than the Strato-Star's, the the C-pillar / backlight window areas differ considerably. The wide front wheel openings are impractical for daily use in non-desert climates.
The 88 Delta has a 120 inch (3048 mm) wheelbase, but I cannot find that of the Strato-Star, but it seems to be shorter.
Doors seem to be the same width, but the 88 Delta's greater length is found between the rear door cutline and rear wheel. Note the similarity of the fender lines and especially the rear fender shapes.
Strato-Star rear view.
88 Delta rear view. Both cars have similar rounded shapes. Ditto exhaust ports.
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Bits of 1950's "dream" cars show up all the time in later production cars. The split grille of the 88 (but within an oval shape) showed up in the 1956 Olds. The rounded rear in the 1957 Cadillac El Dorado.
ReplyDeleteThe little extra hood on the Pontiac headlights showed up in 1955-56 Pontiacs.
The inboard headlights also seen on a Chevy concept seem to recall GM dragging their feet on headlights that other companies had already moved to the middle of the front fenders years before in the pre-WWII period. By 1940 at GM they had only migrated to about the same streamlined in but inboard position.