Extremely rare 1-of-12 GM Futurliner appeared online out of nowhere
- A 1939 GM Futurliner has been listed for sale
- The Futurliner is a rare concept vehicle produced by GM in the late 1930s
- Only nine still exist
Published on Aug 07, 2024 at 8:20 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Aug 09, 2024 at 2:49 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
A 1939 GM Futurliner appeared for sale out of nowhere.
In case you aren’t familiar, the Futurliner is a rare concept vehicle produced by GM very briefly in the late 1930s.
In fact, only 12 were made, and only nine of those still exist.
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The Futurliner is one of those unique, wild experiments that automakers used to make more often in the past.
It’s unclear what GM wanted this to be, because it’s halfway between a bus and a van, but it’s certainly interesting.
The Futurliner is one of the largest prototypes ever made
The Futurliner is 11 feet six inches (3.5 meters) tall and 32 feet 10 inches (9.8 meters) long.
That’s very nearly as large as an actual bus.
It has three seats at the front, inside the cabin, and plenty of space at the back.
You could easily turn this into a proper RV with a bit of talent and a lot of money.
The seating layout is McLaren-esque, by the way, with a central driver’s seat and then two seats right behind it.
So that’s basically the same as a McLaren Speedtail, and it very nearly costs the same as a Speedtail.
The owner is selling it on Facebook for seven figures.
When automakers go wild with their concepts
Automakers used to be particularly good at creating interesting and unusual concept cars.
In the 1980s, Italdesign made three virtually identical wedge-shaped concept cars for Ford, Oldsmobile (the one above) and Lotus respectively.
The good news is that they’re still doing it, although probably not as frequently as they used to in the past.
Not long ago, DS unveiled an asymmetrical concept with a glass floor.
More recently, Honda unveiled a new wedge-shaped concept car inspired by the golden era of this particular design language.
Long may this trend continue.