1948's "Cars of the Future" did not happen

Originally published at: 1948's "Cars of the Future" did not happen | Boing Boing

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The music really pulls the whole thing together…

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I’m sure if we could bring someone through a time warp to the 21st century from 1948 they would still think our cars are pretty futuristic. We may not have hydraulic parking devices, but onboard computers, dvd screens for the rear passengers, heated seats, and hi-fi stereos would impress them.

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Wish my car had a rugged empennage. Maybe something like Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion.

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I really like the idea of those built-in hydraulic jacks, too bad that hasn’t become a common accessory, unless I’m not seeing the downside…

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The extra weight of the jacks and system itself were prohibitive, I’d guess.

Plus, the temptation to pull a Mach 5 jump…

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A while back, the High Museum here in the ATL hosted a dream cars exhibit that had some cool, futuristic looking cars…

This was easily my favorite…

I wanted to put it in my pocket and take it home…

sailor-moon-cute

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It’s only £14,495 for the 50 MPH electric version.

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That last one was gorgeous. Does anyone know that the narrator was saying? Gordon Geuring? The Corm?

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Of course the handling the dymaxion cars was really, really, bad.

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The car museum near Seattle had some cool retro future cars when I went there a few years ago.

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Gordon Buehrig, designer of the Cord 810.

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Would an Isetta do?
image

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Aha! Thanks so much!

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As tiny as this is, the front plate could just as well have said “RODENT”. :blush:

Sorry to spoil your fun, but that’s not a picture of a Dymaxion, it’s a video game rendering of a Dymaxion-like fantasy vehicle.
This is what a Dymaxion Car really looks like:

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give it to me GIF

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There’s a reason why three-wheeled cars with a single front wheel never caught on.

In the US, at least…

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Nifty little cars. The only downside would be if your high school “friends” were to pick it up and shove it nose-first into a snowbank, so you had to get into it via the sunroof. Which probably never happened.

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Except every day that it snowed?

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