Photo: Budget Direct
Over the years we’ve had dreamers imagining all sorts of means of transportation. From cars that can fly or submerge to Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, all those with enough imagination are scrambling to dream up ways to avoid what will certainly become in no time a gridlocked planet.
People have always been like this. From the crazy ideas of the 1930s – 1950s to the ones of more recent times, there is no limit to what people dream technology could do.
Take this McLouth XV61 Concept, for instance. Coming to us from 1961, a time when the American car industry was beginning to go down the performance-vehicles-for-the-masses path, it presents a strange view of the future born in the offices of a steel corporation.
The image you see as the main photo of this piece is a modern interpretation of the original XV61 courtesy of Australian insurance company Budget Direct.
Originally designed by a guy named Syd Mead (you might know him for his contribution to iconic movies like Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron) for the McLouth Steel Corporation, it was supposed to preview a future when cars could be capable of moving both on the road, and if need be, on monorail as well.
Because it was designed on behalf of a steel company, the material was heavily used on the body panels, pillars and rocker panels of a physical concept that was shown at the International Automobile Show in the New York Coliseum in 1961.
The concept came as a ride for four people, surrounded by large windows and high doors. As for what powered it, no one bothered going that far.
Sure, the concept is not as spectacular as the all-steel cars made by Allegheny Ludlum Steel for Ford some three decades earlier, but it goes to show just how much faith the people of the time had in the available materials of the time, but also in the endless possibilities that lay in their future.
Take this McLouth XV61 Concept, for instance. Coming to us from 1961, a time when the American car industry was beginning to go down the performance-vehicles-for-the-masses path, it presents a strange view of the future born in the offices of a steel corporation.
The image you see as the main photo of this piece is a modern interpretation of the original XV61 courtesy of Australian insurance company Budget Direct.
Originally designed by a guy named Syd Mead (you might know him for his contribution to iconic movies like Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron) for the McLouth Steel Corporation, it was supposed to preview a future when cars could be capable of moving both on the road, and if need be, on monorail as well.
Because it was designed on behalf of a steel company, the material was heavily used on the body panels, pillars and rocker panels of a physical concept that was shown at the International Automobile Show in the New York Coliseum in 1961.
The concept came as a ride for four people, surrounded by large windows and high doors. As for what powered it, no one bothered going that far.
Sure, the concept is not as spectacular as the all-steel cars made by Allegheny Ludlum Steel for Ford some three decades earlier, but it goes to show just how much faith the people of the time had in the available materials of the time, but also in the endless possibilities that lay in their future.
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