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The Show Car After The Show

Started by Charles D. Barnette #1465, February 18, 2006, 01:34:20 PM

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Charles D. Barnette #1465

The recent events regarding the 1956 Eldorado Brougham Town Car (EBTC) raises these proverbial questions? (I am happy that EBTC is not crushed and remains on US soil) What happens to the show car after the glitz and glamor of the show have ended? More importantly what should happen to show cars after the show? After the show, the manufacturer (subject to the market) either provides a museum, or the car is destroyed, or the car goes to the private sector. Once in the hands of the private sector depending on the current fortunes of the buyer, the car will go into a private museum, eventually be put through the auction system, warehoused and never seen again, or made street legal with numerous modifications! Is the answer to turn one more realm over to the State or Federal Government and let them decide? In my opinion the show car is the greatest artifact of our civilization-what then is the perfect solution? After much reflection, I think the best and most permanent solution is donation to National Club Museums like what our club has. Come on and weigh into this CLC Message Forum People! Thanks. Charles D. Barnette

David Temple, #22317

I agree show cars should not be destroyed and today many are not. Other cars not on the show circuit but used for experiments are crushed, though. Sometimes there is absolutely no apparent need for such. GM tested a striped-down F-body Firebird then decided not to put it in production. The test car was destroyed. Why?! It was just a production car with less equipment on it. At least GM saves the new show cars or at least the ones we get to see like the Sixteen. As for a perfect solution to people buying show cars and then putting them where no one else can see them there is no perfect solution. People can do whatever they want with their "toys." -- David Temple

Richard Sills - CLC #936

Charles, you make an excellent point.  So long as a show car (or any car of historical interest, for that matter) remains in the ownership of the manufacturer, its fate depends on what the manufacturer determines to be in its best economic interest.  Under our capitalistic system, that is as it should be.  The manufacturer is a for-profit corporation, and the mission of the corporation is to earn a profit for its shareholders.  It is also possible that while current management perceives the important connection between the "heritage vehicles" and the new models offered for sale, their eventual successors will take a different view, causing those heritage vehicles to be dispersed.

By contrast, a non-profit corporation organized for educational and charitable purposes -- such as the CLC Museum & Research Center -- has an entirely different mission:  to preserve automotive history and make it available to the public, now and for future generations.  So long as CLCMRC has sufficient funds to operate, it need not be concerned about whether it is a profitable endeavor to retain and display a historically significant automobile.  The preservation of Cadillac-LaSalle history is the reason for the existence of CLCMRC, and that purpose takes precedence above all others.

An essential element is that a museum such as CLCMRC must have funds to operate, even though it may not engage in substantial commercial activity.  This is only possible if those persons who believe in the importance of preserving automotive history support the museum as generously as they can, both during their lifetimes and through bequests at death.  Tax benefits can greatly reduce the true economic cost of supporting a museum, but first, the donor must decide that he or she cares enough about the purpose of the museum to include it in his or her plans.

Richard Sills
President, CLCMRC
           

Bruce Berghoff - #1476

   Interesting subject guys, and who should decide what show cars are representative of a manufacturers thinking and worthy of historical preservation ? In my two decades of working with several GM Divisions on their SEMA Show presentations I was close to the design and developement process of many of their "show cars". A significant number of these slightly to highly modified production models were designs conceived and built by "outside" street rod and street machine builders, sometimes with very little input from Divisional or Corporate  personnel (other than funding) ! On one occasion an outside designed and built "show car" modified from a production four-door to become a two-door coupe, so startled the Divisions General Manager that he ordered the vehicle destroyed so as not to start any industry rumors.

   Rarely does GM give credit to the outside designers or builders of these "show cars", consequently the spectators and readers of enthusiast magazines think they are the products of GMs Design Staff. I suspect GM might not be unique in the industry in tapping "outside" talent to create newsworthy "show cars" ! Long live Boyd Cottington; "lil John Buttera; Chuck Lombardo & "Chuckie"; Chip Foose; etc.

   ( GM occasionally solved the "show car after the show" disposition problem by making the ownership of the vehicle part of the build contract. At the end of the useful show period of the vehicle the ownership reverted to the builder. )

   ....and youre trying to tell me that the designer of the most successful Mustang in 25 years designed "Cadzilla" while moonlighting from GMs Design Staff ...?

Sue

A local car guy is close friends with George Barris and we asked him how did they meet?  

When he was in high school, his dad owned a hotel in Dearborn, MI near FoMoCo. George Barris would come into town and stay at the hotel.  

George Barris consulted with Ford on some of their designs back in the 60s and its no wonder that the Lincoln Futura was given to him to eventually become the original Batmobile.

David Temple, #22317

Bruce, that is extremely interesting! Do you recall what four-door was reworked into a two-door coupe prototype? I wonder if any photos of the car even survive. -- David

Bruce Berghoff - #1476

David... The car was a 1985 or 86 Buick Century modified by lil John Buttera. John was given a production car about 5 or 6 weeks before the annual October Las Vegas SEMA Show and delivered the chopped car to the Las Vegas Convention Center just in time for unveiling. He shortened the wheelbase about 8" and eliminated two doors. I cant remember if he lengthened the front doors, but he did an amazing rework in the time he had the car. I recall it was painted a bright Royal Blue with blackwall tires. At the time blackwall tires were reserved for Grand Nationals and "T-Type" Regals. I dont remember if the car was removed from the show floor, or banished to obscurity after the show. BB

Mike #19861


 From what I have read, there are a couple of reasons why show cars were routinely crushed when the tinsel wore off.

 First, many of these cars, while being runners, were not up to the quality and reliability levels of fully developed production models. So, if realeased to the public sector, or even to GM execs where they could eventually end up in the public sector, they could give bad press to whatever shortcomings they had. No one wanted the adverse publicity.

 Second, there was the liability if the car was involved in an accident causing personal injury or death. As I said, these cars were not fully developed and many safety issues could arise from their use on public roads.

 While we see these cars as historically significant, they were not in their day. After a couple of years they were obsolete, and it was easier to just destroty them. Today, however, they are retained by the corporation and housed in the corporate museums.

 We are fortunate that many did escape the crusher, and collectors like John Bortz have tracked them down and restored them for us to enjoy.

 Mike

Yann Saunders

This thread reminded me of our first trip to the USA, back in 1978, when our kids were just 3 and 4 years old and travel was relatively cheap because Gita worked for Swissair !

We spent time with Chuck Jordan, who was then GM Director of Design.  Chucks daily driver, at the time, was a GM show car !

Not a Cadillac, but worth a look nevertheless.  Check it out:

http://www.car-nection.com/yann/ChuckVisit.htm TARGET=_blank>http://www.car-nection.com/yann/ChuckVisit.htm

I wonder if these two cars survived (one aas silver, the other gold).

Bill Burton

A few years ago, Cooleys auto museum in San Diego, California and Alfords auto museum, a private collection on public display, in El Centro, California were trying to merge their collections into one in the El Centro area.  Cooley specializes in unrestored early cars.  A couple of them are very early Cadillace and he even has an unrestored 1890s era Benz that the Smithsonian has done detailed examination on.  Cooley also has had over the years a few show/preview/project vehicles on loan from GM.  He claimed that if they could have put the museum together, they would have had access to a large number, I took that to mean more than say, fifty, of those vehicles that are sprinkled around in various locations.  Bureaucracy got in the way and the project never got off the ground, but he still assured me a few months ago that the right combination and right person could get those cars on display somewhere.  Im on the outside looking in, but perhaps there is someone on this web site that can give more information on this tantalizing possibility.