1950s Concept & Production Car Lineup

Item Number: 53217274

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Year 1950

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1956 GM Firebird II experimental car (front row-left) and a 1954 GM Firebird I experimental car (front row-right). In the center row are 1956 concept cars as follows: (left to right) an Oldsmobile Golden Rocket, Buick Centurion, Pontiac Club de Mer, Chevrolet Corvette Impala, and a Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Town Car. The vehicles in the back row are 1956 production vehicles as follows: (left to right) an Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac, Chevrolet, and a Cadillac.

These vehicles were shot on location at the GM Warren Technical Center. The GM Technical Center was designed by architect Eero Saarinen and was built in 1950. Occupying 330 acres, its 25 buildings including gatehouses, large laboratories, offices, and shop buildings are arranged along three sides of a 22-acre lake. The one-square-mile complex of engineering facilities is located 12 miles north of Detroit, Michigan. The Technical Center is the workshop for GM engineers, researchers, stylists, designers, mechanics, machinists, and other specialists. At the Center, the research and engineering projects are conducted over an extended length of time.

Engineering staff projects generally look ahead at least three to five years while research projects extend even further into the future. In addition, the Technical Center handles programs that would be uneconomical or beyond the resources of individual divisions. All styling and design of products is handled exclusively at the Technical Center in individual brand character groups. In the background is the Design Dome, which has a 188-foot diameter floor that can be set up as an auditorium for an audience of more than 1000, or used as an exhibition hall. The outer dome is 65 feet high with a span of 188 feet, and is based on pressure-vessel construction. The aluminum shell is 3/8 of an inch thick-thinner than what an eggshell is to an egg. Official GM Photograph from the General Motors Media Archives.

This image is available as a framed or unframed museum quality archive print that will last a lifetime and be a personal treasure of the history of General Motors.

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