Chances are your car is a watered down version of an automotive designer’s dream. For example, when you think of a Cadillac, you probably think of this:

not this:

You can see amazing engineering creations like this Cadillac Cyclone at the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, Rhode Island, 85 miles from downtown Hartford. The Cyclone is a concept car, now on display with many other cars that never made it to production. It’s part of an Audrain exhibit called “Styling the Future: A History of GM Design and Concept Cars.”

Concepts allow designers to try out some new styles and design elements, and inspire production models, that usually look vastly different. This 1951 Buick LeSabre was spectacular, and a few toned down elements made it onto Buicks in the late 1950s…

..but when the first production LeSabre came out in 1959, it looked like this:

My favorite concept at the Audrain is the Firebird, that looked more like a jet than a car, and nothing like the Pontiac Firebird that debuted in the 1960s.

The Audrain’s exhibits change every few months, and I’m hoping they do one on woody wagons. I will gladly let them show off my Buick Enclave Estate Wagon concept!

More pics from the Audrain exhibit:

More info on the Audrain right here: https://audrainautomuseum.org/

Check out this past Audrain exhibit: https://dennishouse.tv/2016/07/14/holy-summer-vacation-the-batmobile-is-in-town/