The PERFECT Vehicle for Malorn...

[Broken External Image]:http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/edu_k-12/images/futurliner_test_drive.jpg

"There was a time when General Motors would simply put on its own car shows.

Between 1940 and 1956, the company put on touring "Motorama" shows in various cities across the country. (America first saw the Corvette at a Motorama show, for example.) GM also put on touring "Parade of Progress" shows. Those shows traveled around the country in a dozen huge buses like this one. Only three of those buses survive.

The side of the bus opens to reveal a huge retractable stage. The high cockpit of the bus was entered through a door in the front.

A cultural artifact of the famed General Motors “Parade of Progress†tours made a grand re-appearance at the 16th Annual Eyes on Design Auto Exhibition at the GM Technical Center in June 2003.

The restored “Futurliner†was one of 12 custom-built buses used in GM’s nationwide “Parade of Progress†tours in the 1940s and ’50s. The vehicles doubled as exhibit transportation and convertible stage as GM sought to bring the story of science and technology directly to cities and small towns throughout the United States. The Futurliners first began touring in 1941.

The red-and-white motor coach shown at Eyes on Design – one of only nine remaining Futurliners known to exist – was restored by a group of some 30 volunteers, with support from GM divisions and about two dozen other businesses that donated parts and services. It is owned by the National Automotive & Truck Museum in Auburn, Ind., and Don Mayton, a retired GM plant manager and an experienced restorer of vintage automobiles, directed the five-year restoration project.

The massive vehicle – 33 feet long, 11 feet 7 inches tall, and weighing 27,000 pounds – contains a mixture of refurbished original equipment and new parts. A local shop recast all of the letters, including the block “GM†on the front and the “General Motors Parade of Progress†insignia on the side. The grille, mirrors, and upper trim are original, while the bumpers were salvaged from a scrapped Futurliner. GM Pre-Production Operations and GM Design supplied a new roof. GM Powertrain restored the transmission, and a technician in Gleana, Ill., repaired the Futurliner’s Autronic-Eye control, which dims the headlights automatically when another vehicle approaches and raises them when oncoming traffic has passed."



Just picture that thing going on a rampage running over all the inventory at any given Toyota dealer...


...and the last thing he saw while driving his Prius, was the large "MG" in his rear view...

h34r:

 

In my best Andrew Dice Clay voice:

"OH!"

:lol: