1951 Buick XP-300 Concept

Around the turn of 1950-1951 General Motors announced two concept cars -- "Dream Cars" as they were popularly called at the time.  The much more famous one was the Le Sabre, the lesser-known was the Buick XP-300, today's subject.

The Le Sabre was the more sensational-looking one due to styling cues taken from the US Air Force F-86 Sabre jet fighter, rocketry, and other futuristic technology.  On the other hand, the XP-300 was more conventional in appearance, though it did share a jet-exhaust motif on its trunk lid with the Le Sabre.

An interesting point is that while the Le Sabre was a corporate design, the XP-300 was related to GM's Buick division and featured Buick style vertical grille bars and headlight assemblies that appeared on 1953 Buicks.

My opinion is that GM's styling supremo Harley Earl larded so many details onto the Le Sabre that several conflicted, making the design somewhat incoherent.  That was especially so for its front end.  The XP-300's styling lacked that profusion of details (aside from its rear end) and its basic shapes were less complicated.  This is why I mentioned above that it seems more conventional.  Still, it was futuristic for its time, and if the Le Sabre had never been built, the XP-300 would have been far more famous than it was.

All images below are via General Motors.

Gallery

Glamour publicity photo of the XP-300, showing how low it was compared to the model at the right.

Frontal design is very Buick -- the gunsight ornaments atop the fender fronts, the crest ensemble above the grille, the vertical grille bars, and those headlight assemblies that later appeared on production Buicks.  The panoramic (wraparound) windshields on the Le Sabre and XP-300 were avant-garde in 1951.

The fenderline did not appear on later GM cars, though the raised rear fender hints at the future tail fin fad.  That large swath of side trim has the function of helping draw the eye lower, counteracting the higher, curved, main body profile.  Abaft of the door, it conforms to the fender skirt that pivots from the doorpost to allow better access to the rear wheel.

The XP-300 does have a trunk lid, but little trunk carrying capacity.

The central jet exhaust motif and related boat tail shape contrast considerably from the clean hood area: too fussy.  A higher trunk lid mimicking the hood would have made for a more unified design.  But might have detracted from the Dream Car "Wow" factor.

Overhead view.

Frontal view taken at the Sloan museum in Flint, Michigan.

Rear view showing the complicated detailing.