German Car Zone

GM's 100th Birthday



GM has used their 100th anniversary to launch the Chevy Volt, and electric vehicle with a fuel-engine that only works as a generator. Instead of focusing in on this economy car, we have decided to feature many cars from GM's Heritage Collection.

GM's 100th anniversary has been celebrated at almost every major show. These often included many of GM's own cars. The company has been diligent in keep many of its cars operational and available for shows.

We had numerous chances to visit the facility where these cars are stored and decided now is the time to compile our efforts. Our feature gallery features work from both Richard Owen and Stephan Bauer.

At the Pebble Beach Concours, GM brought an impressive list of cars which we can now showcase on Supercars.net. These include: 1955 LaSalle II Roadster, 1954 Buick Wildcat II, 1951 Buick LeSabre, 1951 Buick XP-300, 1956 Buick Centurion & 1959 Cadillac Cyclone.

Source: SuperCars.net -- GM's 100th

Photos:


1955 LaSalle II Roadster


1954 Buick Wildcat II


1951 Buick LeSabre


1951 Buick XP-300


1956 Buick Centurion

GM has had some pretty advanced designs over the years. Look at these:


1965 Corvette Mako Shark II XP-830


Interior of '65 Corvette Mako Shark


Corvette XP


1986 Corvette Indy Concept

Wow! ...look at that ...it's still inspiring over half a century later.


Those old concept cars are so great -- they were less concerned about any real technological advancements and much more about "The Future" as some kind of abstract idea -- they represent an optimistic faith in the promise of a better world through science and technology. Gosh, how things have changed, today, people blame science and technology for so much that is wrong with the world.

They really were. You said it perfectly

And that Centurion is just great. The quality of the design and finish is superb. It was style for style's sake.

The interior is so busy

Wow, it looks so much like microsoft!

It's amazing how the design-leading image of american car makers has radically changed. Untill the '60s almost every new design innovation came from overseas - espacially from GM, who were the very first car company to realize that design is just as important and therefor founded the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, which was the very first Automotive Design School. There they started to actually draw and design cars in perspective, rather than just using a ruler and tamplates to draw some blueprints.

and now look at what they ended up to be..