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Seeing as how this last Tuesday was the forty-seventh anniversary of the 1962 World's Fair here in Seattle, we've spent a fair bit of time checking out all the great HistoryLink info on the Century 21 Exhibition (as it was otherwise known) and came across an interesting little tidbit: the Ford Motor Company, at the prompting of Joe Gandy, a local dealership owner, invested in developing the "An Adventure in Space" exhibit, one of the fair's signature pieces. And at the end of their exhibit, Ford showcased its most cutting-edge concept car, named the Ford Seattle-ite XXI.
Googling it for pictures, we were immediately blown away. If the Space Needle is the example par excellence of Populuxe architecture, then the Seattle-ite XXI is every bit as indicative of Raygun Gothic, a term coined by William Gibson to refer to "retro-futuristic science fiction" design, the look and feel of a "future that never was" (think The Jetsons or Metropolis).
But it turns out that far from being a wacky novelty, the Ford Seattle-ite XXI is known amongst concept car afficianados as perhaps the single most innovative concept car ever imagined. All the way back in 1962, Ford engineers envisioned a car with computer navigation, only now becoming commonplace. What's more, the Seattle-ite XXI was conceived to run on a set of fuel cells; while the engineers believed they would be nuclear-powered, the cells were meant to be interchangeable, so the car could run on whatever sort were available.
Appearance-wise, the car's most seemingly ridiculous trait appears to be its two sets of front wheels, but even this turns out to be a good idea. Four front wheels increase traction, prevent hydro-planing, and four disc breaks drastically increases stopping power. In 1976, a six-wheeled Formula 1 car, the Tyrrell P34, won the Swedish Grand Prix. Today, the Covini C6W, a six-wheeled Italian sports car, has gone into limited production as of 2005.
And finally, the Seattle-ite was designed to be separable. The full version pictured above was to have featured a 400+ horsepower engine, but the entire front was designed to be removable, leaving a smaller, 60 horsepower car for city driving.
All of which leaves us wondering if we should really be all that sympathetic to the auto industry's plight today. If engineers and designers in 1962 were able to conceive a car with so many features that history has proven right (or that the present still hopes for, as with fuel cell technology), we have to wonder why the auto industry spent 50 years fighting the temptation to make smarter cars instead of making the Seattle-ite XXI dream a reality?
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I would totally have sex with that car.
Love the 3rd shot, with the model. This thing barely comes up to her waist! Why does it seem so out of scale - was it to be driven exclusively by Martians?
I'm sitting here debating why that is, whether it be the car or her or what...
But the Knight Rider theme song came on, and I know longer care about such trivial things. I just want to know how fast she can take me down the Empire Expressway (of the future).
Not sure if that link worked:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/3407349940/
Expressway of Neverneverland - or Hell!