The 1948 Ford Muroc Concept Model by Gil Spear

One label for this post is "Concept Cars." But the subject never made it beyond the scale model statge.  One reason might have been because concept cars were not a thing in 1948 America.  The first post- World War 2 Dream Car / Concept Car was General Motors' Le Sabre that was revealed in a December 1950 Life magazine issue that I wrote about here.

Nevertheless, the 1948 Ford Motor Company's Muroc model received some exposure:

It's that red car at the upper left of this 1953 paperback book from Motor Trend magazine.

The book "Ford Design Department: Concept & Show Cars 1932-1961" by Jim and Cheryl Farrell credits (pp. 77-79) the design of the Muroc to Gil Spear, whose career is summarized on page 78.  He entered automobile design at General Motors, then moved to Chrysler Corporation around 1939-40 after a short time with Norman Bel Geddes' industrial design firm.   I wrote about his Chrysler work here.

He joined Ford in 1947 and the Muroc model was completed in late 1948.

The Farrells write:

"It was the first 3/8-sized concept car specifically designed by Spear for review by his still-skeptical bosses in the Engineering Department.  Spear knew he had a 'hot," different [sic] and an attention-getter, but that it also had to be within the package set by Engineering.  The hood could be lower than the package, because no one knew how low engines or radiators would be in the future, but Engineering wouldn't let the roof or windshield to be raked as Spear wanted... From the prespective of 50 years later, Spear still thinks the roof and windshield look stuffy."

Images of the Muroc are in the Gallery below.  They were originally from Ford.  Color photos were found on the Internet.  Black and white photos are from the Farrell's book.

Gallery

The Muroc as found on a 1952 Ford Advanced Studio display.  That's Gil Spear sketching it. The wide, vertical grille bars are suggestive of those later seen on 1950 Buicks.  The Farrells stated that it was completed towards the end of 1948, but did not mention when it was first revealed to the public.  1950 Buick Specials were announced 8 August 1949, so its grille design was probably set sometime in 1948.  Ford's Mercury brand cars had grilles with vertical bars starting in 1946, though these bars were very thin.

An image apparently scanned from a publication.  The basic body is unreasonably low, making the passenger greenhouse appear unreasonably tall.  The wheels and tires seem smaller than the American norm for 1948.  There are bulges above all wheel openings, though the front ones would have been unnecessary from a wheel jounce standpoint.

Same viewpoint, but with a model of a driver at the wheel.  The driver might not be at 3/8 scale, given the relationship to the steering wheel.  On the other hand, steering wheels were large in those pre- power steering days.  If the driver were indeed 3/8 scale like the model, then the passenger compartment would be excessively tall.  Since the model was built to Engineering's package specifications, I'll assume the driver model is a little below 3/8 scale.

Rear quarter view.  The greenhouse window patterns is awkward.  Trunk capacity (if there even is supposed to be a trunk) is negligible.  Those lethal looking "Dagmars" at the rear predate the famous ones on 1952 Cadillac front bumpers.