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GM Futurliner #10 Joins National Historic Vehicle Register

Remember that museum which is currently under development and that will carefully and accurately document America’s most historically significant automobiles? Dubbed the National Historic Vehicle Register, its developers, the Historic Vehicle Association, have recently announced that one  GM Futurliner will be part of the exposition.
GM Futurliner 1 photo
Photo: Hemmings Daily
GM what? Yes, GM Futurliners. Translation: a custom-built bus, in fact group of busses, designed in the 1940s by Harley Earl for General Motors. They were used in GM’s Parade of Progress, a marketing venture through which the vehicles would travel across the country exhibiting new cars and technology. The busses were built to replace the eight Streamliners that were used from 1936 to 1940.

But wait, why would you need busses to show people your technology? Well, there was no internet back then and television was still not everywhere around...so, there you go! That and the fact that auto makers would move slower in their crazy chase for new customers. Literally.

So, the Futurliners were used from 1940 to 1941 and again from 1953 to 1956 to promote GM’s products. A total of 12 were built and nine were still known to exist as of 2007. One of the surviving busses is the number 10, which not only still exists but was also restored, for about... eight years! And now, after it’s finally looking brand new, the 33-foot, 12-ton vehicle will become one of the National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States in Auburn, Indiana.

The only problem we have with this decision is that we probably won’t be able to see the Futurliner “chase” the quarter mile in streamlined style, like it did a couple of years ago.
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