When General Motors debuted its experimental Firebird 1 at the Waldorf-Astoria during the company’s legendary 1954 Motorama, the crowd went nuts.
The Motorama was a sort of a yearly car show-slash-extravaganza, hosted by General Motors from 1949 to 1961 to stoke interest in its new designs, but amid the dancing girls, fashion shows and musical performances at the 1954 event, the Firebird, with its stubby wings, tail fin and F-6 body, stole the show.
It looked like a fighter jet had landed in the Waldorf ballroom.
GM made it clear that the experimental 200 mph car would never go into production, but that didn’t stop customers from fantasizing about buying their own personal road rocket.
"Dream Cars: Innovative Design, Visionary Ideas," which opens May 21, brings 17 such vehicles from across Europe and the U.S. to Atlanta's High Museum, and the power of fantasy still radiates from these fabulous creations.
The carefully curated show offers deep information on the technical advances epitomized by each model. Sarah Schleuning, the High’s curator of decorative arts and design, uses these concept cars to show the influential role that motor vehicles play in the history of design, and the way science interacts with the marketplace.
But neither science nor commerce can explain the visceral, physical reaction that these cars compel. They represent not just the striving of designers toward a technical vanguard, but toward artistic extremes of beauty and delight.
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