1940 buick show car was a daily driver!!!!

[mcrews]

article here:
Buick Y-Job named to National Historic Vehicle Register | Fox News


Buick Y-Job named to National Historic Vehicle Register
Motor Authority By Kirk Bell Published August 03, 2016


The Buick Y-Job, one of the most influential concept cars of all time, became the 14th car to be named to the National Historic Vehicle Register today.

The Y-Job went on display in early 1940 as the "Car of the Future." Created by legendary GM design chief Harley J. Earl's Styling Section, it used a lengthened 1940 Buick Series 50 Super chassis and was powered by a 248-cubic inch straight-8 engine with dual carburetors. Buick called it a convertible coupe, but it really was a car that foreshadowed automotive design themes that would be used in the 1940s and '50s.


It's lower and wider body meant running boards were no longer needed. With that change, the fenders extended into the doors, the first signs of the gradual change from the pontoon-fendered bodies of the 1930s to the envelope bodies of the 1950s. That shape also gave the body a low, wide, horizontal grille in a sea of skinny upright grilles....



Other innovative features included an alligator-type (one-piece) hood instead of a two-piece hood; a concealed, hydraulic-electric convertible top; retractable headlamps; power windows; 13-inch wheels in an era of 16s; and the first hints of tailfins.

Interestingly, Earl used the car as his daily driver for about a decade before presenting it to the Buick Historical Collection in 1951.

[Frank Lee]

That's my #1 All Time Favorite car!

[Xist]

Seventy-six years ago was the era of sixteen-inch wheel, but they introduced thirteens, which my Prelude had, but we slowly worked back to sixteens?

What is the cliché?

[t vago]

Originally Posted by Xist

Seventy-six years ago was the era of sixteen-inch wheel, but they introduced thirteens, which my Prelude had, but we slowly worked back to sixteens?

What is the cliché?

I suspect they would have an observation about things happening before and will be happening again...

[Frank Lee]

"What comes around, goes around."

Yay! Buick will build a Y-Job for me someday!

I don't know what those ladies represent, but I'm not complaining.

[kach22i]

Some other sleek for their time cars in link below, hidden headlights are the common denominator.

Pop-Up Headlights – Seventy Years of Hidden History
https://www.heacockclassic.com/artic...idden-history/

Earl considered it his laboratory on wheels and drove the car routinely for years. Though the Y-Job had many forward thinking features, the hidden headlights added a futuristic and sleek look to the one-of-a-kind convertible. The lights were covered with horizontally split circular lids that opened up and down like human eyelids; they opened whenever the lights were switched on.

1938 Buick Y-Job Concept
1938 Buick Y-Job Concept | Autos of Interest

To the left is a picture of the exposed headlights. I initially thought they rolled on a horizontal axis but, from what I could find, there are horizontally-split doors. They separate and pull back, then the headlight moves forward, looking as if it was fastened there all along.

[mcrews]

as much as I likr the concept of hidden headlamps....the Buick looks better with the lights exposed.

The 13 inch tires would have given better off the line acceleration.....given the typical gearing in the fortys.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Xist

What is the cliché?

What's past is prologue.

everything old is new again.

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I don't know what those ladies represent, but I'm not complaining.

I [almost hate] that* too, but in this case I know — killer robots.

Edit: *random head shot or figure from Mainstream Media with no attribution.

[mcrews]

could be worse ways to die......

[basjoos]

I thought the 1935 Cord 810 was the first car with hidden headlights and no running boards (also front wheel drive).