This week on My Classic Car, Dennis Gage is all about what could have been as he travels to Highland Park, Illinois to take a look at a couple of wild 1950s concept cars. #conceptcar #cadillac #chrysler S11E20
These are cars I've seen in books and magazine so many times. Very cool to see them in today in running condition. Honestly, the Valkyrie looks like Elvis and Liberace got together as design consultants - whew!
Such great examples of their respective designers. Brooks Stevens used all his favorite cues on this one: not just the front beak, but the cutaway front fenders, the side sweep, and the squared, formal fins. Even his favorite black-and-cream two tone color scheme! Exner's pet cues are there too: the enveloping grill, long, low lines, wide chrome beltline, extreme wrap on the windscreen and amazing full length fins.
Great video , I remember picking out and mixing all those colors for the mini Cooper truck when I (Fred Shutrump) painted that Mini Cooper for Ireson Motorsports.
I had the opportunity to see the Diablo as it was being restored at Eastern Coach on Long Island in the 1980s. My mom ran the office there for over thirty years and I was there often to see the host of spectacular cars which were restored. This Diablo always stuck out as unique. Seeing it on the small screen does not do it proper justice. Standing next to it and looking out over that long curved nose made on think of a bright red flying saucer. Fantastic car and thrilled to see it still out there.
@@MyClassicCarTV My mom just let me know the owner at the time would drive it on the Long Island Expressway to work. He owned Blue Ridge Farms on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn and would park it on the street with guards. Trust me, it was not a "farm" and the buildings are gone now.
The front of the Valkyrie is certainly bold, to say the least. It's an impressive restoration. Other videos have shown the high level of quality that went into the chrome plating. Still, that grille...
Love the Diablo. The interior oozes Italian styling with sensible functionality. Not seen one before. Shame not to see it with the top down. Thanks Dennis and to Joe.
The late 50's / early 60's Chrysler interiors were incredible. Although Ghia had a lot of influence on the interior of the Diablo, if you look at the dash layout of a 55 New Yorker, you will see a similar gauge layout. And the oval steering wheel and dash layout on the driver's side is close to that of a 60 Imperial. Ghia knocked the interior of this car out of the park partly because Chrysler and Virgil Exner gave them so much to work with.
Joe seems very committed and knowledgeable about these old concepts, but if I was Dennis I’m not sure I’d even bring this to the fans w/o the caveat of being the driver. It’s his take we want. Anyway, kudos to Dennis for going the steps to let us view and learn but I’d have passed.
Some of those probably came from a Maserati and were added later. The steering wheel is from a 1960 Imperial and doesn't really go with the shape of the dash. I liked the Dart better with the taller fins and the retractable hardtop. Crazy to think they took finished show cars and started cutting them up for the next year.
The name 'Die Valkyrie' itself is USA-Germany fusion - Die ("Dee" - The) from Die Walküre, a famous German opera; and Valkyrie, that word in English. Opera by Richard Wagner is based on Norse mythology, same source material as many of today's superhero-fantasy Blockbuster movies.
The Valkyrie front looks like it crashed into NASA's entrance. The rest is pretty cool. The Diablo has slick lines, it’s really cool. We’ve forgotten to draw lines like that. (Not crazy about the name though)
I agree with you on the name choice. However, the body has great aero effects... cuts through the air with minimum drag. Some of those body elements were the rakish front window angle seen on some production cars plus later Exner designs like the 1961-1963 Ford Thunderbird.
Hmm, Diablo is the Devil is the Beast from the Bible. But I'm not sure I'd call the first one a "beauty", so maybe the Chrysler is both. Evil IS often quite enticing.
Both cars are beauties... I was wondering about the area they were driving in and those buildings.. is that a college campus or something? Looks very beautiful there!
I remember the concept cars...the DIABLO has what would become the Imperial steering wheel... 1958(?)-1963??...along with the dual-pod instrument panel. My gramma's 1958 Fury had the dash-mounted rear-view mirror..
Beauty and the beast! And the Valkyrie is the Beast, Ye gads that car is hideous! The Diablo, on the other hand, is gorgeous! So sleek and curved and sexy. Yeah, I'll take the red one.
Thought the new Corvette invented the “squircle” steering wheel? But hey that Diablo is completely original and probably worth a cool Million. Dennis wouldn’t want to be the guy that sees that body work get dented. 🙂
Hope you can do these and other concept cars in high def. This episode looks like VHS. I had seen photos of these cars, but is great to do a walk around and see them in motion. The interior of the Diablo is definitely Italian. Who owns it now?
@MyClassicCarTV What is the name of the song that plays when you are cruising around in the Valkyrie? Is there somewhere where I can find a list of the songs used in this season of the show?
Actually there is a Death Race 2050. It's a remake of the original Death Race 2000 from the 70's. Roger Corman,The original director even directed it. I'm pretty sure it went straight to Blue Ray.🙂
It's hard, though, to think of getting into either of these without thinking of getting in and being met by a wall of cigarette smell. No, I didn't see either Dennis or Joe smoke; I'm not implying that they do. And even if they did, Joe probably wouldn't do it it in his cars or allow others to. But in the Fifties, everybody smoked like chimneys, and everything smelled of smoke.
Now days almost every car looks the same as the others. I mean that just about all have the same storm trooper front end. The Star Wars trooper face is on most of them, foreign or domestic.
I call it “whale face”. Toyota is the worst for this, but I do see it on a lot of other makes too. I hate it. But since it’s just a style thing with no relationship to functionality, I figure it’ll go away in a few years after its run its course and people want something new.
Sort of a “ V “ theme going on. A bit more chromium may have helped in the overall look. A ship’s wheel would have been cool. Crome! was the hue and cry then, if it ain’t chromium I ain’t goingium.
