GM Pontiac Firebird II Concept Car
In the 1950s it seems everyone was fascinated with Space Ships. They were on TV, movies, cartoons, comic book and car designs. The Big Three were trying to out do each other with there clear canopies over the driver’s compartment, tail fins and wild shapes. Turbine engines were also going to be the wave of the future with there jet engine sound.
The 1956 GM Firebird II is both a design concept and test mule. It is no clay body on four wheels; it is a running concept car. When I spotted it at the Amelia Island Concours in the spring of 2010 it instantly took me back to my days as a kid and Popular Mechanics magazines. It seems every wild haired invention of that time always made it to Popular Mechanics. This particular car was on the cover of Motor Trend another favorite of mine.
This concept car may be pretty over the top but it does include some insight into the future of the 1967 Pontiac Firebird. You have to look closely but there are some clues of what GMs designers wanted to do that in some small way made it into production a decade or so later.